Analysis of On the March to Sinopi
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
Mithridatis, glorious and powerful,
ruler of great cities,
master of strong armies and fleets,
on the march to Sinopi took a route
through a remote part of the country
where a soothsayer lived.
Mithridatis sent one of his officers
to ask the soothsayer how much more wealth,
how much more power, he'd accumulate in the future.
He dispatched one of his officers,
then continued his march to Sinopi.
The soothsayer withdrew into a secret room.
About a half an hour later he came out
troubled, and said to the officer:
"I wasn't able to clarify things very well.
Today is not a propitious day—
there were some murky shadows, I didn't understand them fully—.
But, I think, the king should be content with what he has.
Anything more will prove dangerous for him.
Remember, officer, to tell him that:
for God's sake to be satisfied with what he has.
Fortune changes suddenly.
Tell King Mithridatis this:
it's extremely rare to come across anyone like his ancestor's companion,
that noble companion who wrote in the earth with his lance
those timely words that saved him: ‘Escape, Mithridatis.' "
Scheme | XAXXBX CXD CX XXDXXBEXXEBXXXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11000100 101110 10111001 10111101 100111010 10101 11111100 110101111 1111010100010 101111100 10101111 01001010101 010111010111 100110100 110101101101 011100101 10110111001110 1110111101111 1011110011 0101001111 11111101111 1010100 1111 101011101101110010 11001011001111 1101111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,081 |
Words | 190 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 3, 2, 15 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 55 Views
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"On the March to Sinopi" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7205/on-the-march-to-sinopi>.
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