Analysis of The Toys
Coventry Patmore 1823 (Woodford, London) – 1896 (Lymington)
My little Son, who look'd from thoughtful eyes
And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,
Having my law the seventh time disobey'd,
I struck him, and dismiss'd
With hard words and unkiss'd,
—His Mother, who was patient, being dead.
Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,
I visited his bed,
But found him slumbering deep,
With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet
From his late sobbing wet.
And I, with moan,
Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;
For, on a table drawn beside his head,
He had put, within his reach,
A box of counters and a red-vein'd stone,
A piece of glass abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells,
A bottle with bluebells,
And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art,
To comfort his sad heart.
So when that night I pray'd
To God, I wept, and said:
Ah, when at last we lie with trancèd breath,
Not vexing Thee in death,
And Thou rememberest of what toys
We made our joys,
How weakly understood
Thy great commanded good,
Then, fatherly not less
Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,
Thou'lt leave Thy wrath, and say,
'I will be sorry for their childishness.'
Scheme | AABCBDEDEFFGGDHGHIIJJBDKKLLMMNOOA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111101 0101010111 1011010101 111001 11101 1101110101 1101111101 110011 1111001 110101101 111101 0111 100111110111 1101010111 1110111 0111000111 01111101 011101 01011 011101111101 110111 111111 111101 1111111111 110101 011111 11101 11001 110101 110011 111111101 111101 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,134 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 33 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 864 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 205 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 131 Views
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"The Toys" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7396/the-toys>.
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