Analysis of The Happy Man
James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)
He's not the happy man, to whom is given
A plenteous fortune by indulgent Heaven;
Whose gilded roofs on shining columns rise,
And painted walls enchant the gazer's eyes;
Whose table flows with hospitable cheer,
And all the various bounty of the year;
Whose valleys smile, whose gardens breathe the spring,
Whose curved mountains bleat, and forests sing;
For whom the cooling shade in summer twines,
While his full cellars give their generous wines;
From whose wide fields unbounded autumn pours
A golden tide into his swelling stores;
Whose winter laughs; for whom the liberal gales
Stretch the big sheet, and toiling commerce sails;
Whom yielding crowds attend, and pleasure serves;
While youth, and health, and vigour string his nerves.
E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined,
Can make the happy man, without the mind;
Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys
The chain of reason with unerring gaze;
Where fancy lives, and to the brightening eyes,
Her fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise;
Where social love exerts her soft command,
And lays the passions with a tender hand,
Whence every virtue flows, in rival strife,
And all the moral harmony of life.
Nor canst thou, Dodington, this truth decline:
Thine is the fortune, and the mind is thine.
Scheme | AABBCCDDBEFFGGHHIIJJBBKKLLMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111110 0110101010 1101110101 010101011 1101111001 01010010101 1101110101 111010101 1101010101 11110111001 1111010101 0101011101 11011101001 1011010101 1101010101 110101111 11111011101 1101010101 1101110001 01110111 11010101001 0101010101 1101010101 0101010101 11001010101 0101010011 11111101 1101000111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,242 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,007 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 210 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 125 Views
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