Analysis of On My Wife's Birth-Day
Christopher Smart 1722 (Shipbourne) – 1771 (King's Bench Prison)
'Tis Nancy's birth-day--raise your strains,
Ye nymphs of the Parnassian plains,
And sing with more than usual glee
To Nancy, who was born for me.
Tell the blythe Graces as they bound,
Luxuriant in the buxom round;
They're not more elegantly free,
Than Nancy, who was born for me.
Tell royal Venus, tho' she rove,
The queen of the immortal grove,
That she must share her golden fee
With Nancy, who was born for me.
Tell Pallas, tho' th'Athenian school,
And ev'ry trite pedantic fool,
On her to place the palm agree,
'Tis Nancy's, who was born for me.
Tell spotless Dian, tho' she range,
The regent of the up-land grange,
In chastity she yields to thee,
O Nancy, who was born for me.
Tell Cupid, Hymen, and tell Jove,
With all the pow'rs of life and love,
That I'd disdain to breathe or be,
If Nancy was not born for me.
Scheme | AABB CCBB DDBB EEBB FFBB DXBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11011111 111011 011111001 11011111 10110111 010000101 11110001 11011111 11010111 01100101 11110101 11011111 11011101001 0110101 10110101 11011111 11010111 01010111 01001111 11011111 11010011 11011101 11011111 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 826 |
Words | 154 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 56 Views
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"On My Wife's Birth-Day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6108/on-my-wife%27s-birth-day>.
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