Analysis of To Miss Hickman, Playing the Spinet
Samuel Johnson 1709 (Lichfield) – 1784 (London)
Bright Stella, form'd for universal reign,
Too well you know to keep the slaves you gain;
When in your eyes resistless lightnings play,
Awed into love our conquer'd hearts obey,
And yield reluctant to despotic sway;
But when your music soothes the raging pain,
We bid propitious heaven prolong your reign,
We bless the tyrant, and we hug the chain.
When old Timotheus struck the vocal string,
Ambition's fury fired the Grecian king:
Unbounded projects labouring in his mind,
He pants for room in one poor world confined.
Thus waked to rage by music's dreadful power,
He bids the sword destroy, the flame devour.
Had Stella's gentle touches moved the lyre,
Soon had the monarch felt the nobler fire:
No more delighted with destructive war,
Ambitious only now to please the fair;
Resign'd his thirst of empire to her charms,
And found a thousand worlds in Stella's arms.
Scheme | AABBBAAACCDDEEFEGHII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 110110101 1111110111 10111101 10111010101 0101010101 1111010101 11010100111 1101001101 11110101 110100101 010101011 1111011101 11111101010 11010101010 1101010101 1101101010 1101010101 0101011101 01111100101 0101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 859 |
Words | 150 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 20 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 691 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 148 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 91 Views
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