Analysis of Conscience
Henry David Thoreau 1817 (Concord) – 1862 (Concord)
Conscience is instinct bred in the house,
Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin
By an unnatural breeding in and in.
I say, Turn it out doors,
Into the moors.
I love a life whose plot is simple,
And does not thicken with every pimple,
A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it,
That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it.
I love an earnest soul,
Whose mighty joy and sorrow
Are not drowned in a bowl,
And brought to life to-morrow;
That lives one tragedy,
And not seventy;
A conscience worth keeping;
Laughing not weeping;
A conscience wise and steady,
And forever ready;
Not changing with events,
Dealing in compliments;
A conscience exercised about
Large things, where one may doubt.
I love a soul not all of wood,
Predestinated to be good,
But true to the backbone
Unto itself alone,
And false to none;
Born to its own affairs,
Its own joys and own cares;
By whom the work which God begun
Is finished, and not undone;
Taken up where he left off,
Whether to worship or to scoff;
If not good, why then evil,
If not good god, good devil.
Goodness! you hypocrite, come out of that,
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
I have no patience towards
Such conscientious cowards.
Give me simple laboring folk,
Who love their work,
Whose virtue is song
To cheer God along.
Scheme | ABBCDEEFFGHGHIIJJIIKKLLMMNNOPPOOQQEERRSTUVWW |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101001 100101001 11010010000 111111 0101 110111110 01110110010 01111101011 11010111111 111101 1101010 111001 0111110 111100 01100 010110 10110 0101010 001010 110101 100100 0101001 111111 11011111 1111 11101 100101 0111 111101 111011 11011101 1100101 1011111 10110111 1111110 1111110 101101111 1111111111 1111001 101010 11101001 1111 11011 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,296 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 44 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,005 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 236 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 108 Views
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"Conscience" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17322/conscience>.
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