Analysis of To Phyllis
Edmund Waller 1606 (Coleshill) – 1687
Phyllis! why should we delay
Pleasures shorter than the day?
Can we (which we never can)
Stretch our lives beyond their span,
Beauty like a shadow flies,
And our youth before us dies.
Or, would youth and beauty stay,
Love has wings, and will away.
Love has swifter wings than Time;
Change in love to heaven doth climb.
Gods, that never change their state,
Vary oft their love and hate.
Phyllis! to this truth we owe
All the love betwixt us two.
Let not you and I inquire
What has been our past desire;
On what shepherds you have smiled,
Or what nymphs I have beguiled;
Leave it to the planets too,
What we shall hereafter do;
For the joys we now may prove,
Take advice of present love.
Scheme | AABBCCAADDEEFGHIJJGGKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011101 1010101 1111101 11010111 101011 01010111 1110101 1110101 1110111 10111011 1110111 1011101 1011111 1010111 1110101 111101010 1110111 1111101 1110101 1110101 1011111 1011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 693 |
Words | 131 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 532 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 129 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 06, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 42 Views
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"To Phyllis" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9333/to-phyllis>.
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