Analysis of An Angler
William Browne 1591 (Tavistock, Devon) – 1645
Now as an angler melancholy standing
Upon a green bank yielding room for landing,
A wriggling yellow worm thrust on his hook,
Now in the midst he throws, then in a nook:
Here pulls his line, there throws it in again,
Mendeth his cork and bait, but all in vain,
He long stands viewing of the curled stream;
At last a hungry pike, or well-grown bream
Snatch at the worm, and hasting fast away,
He knowing it a fish of stubborn sway,
Pulls up his rod, but soft, as having skill,
Wherewith the hook fast holds the fish's gill;
Then all his line he freely yieldeth him,
Whilst furiously all up and down doth swim
Th' insnared fish, here on the top doth scud,
There underneath the banks, then in the mud,
And with his frantic fits so scares the shoal,
That each one takes his hide, or starting hole:
By this the pike, clean wearied, underneath
A willow lies.
From Britannia's Pastorals.
Scheme | AABBXXCCDDEEFFGGEXXH H |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010010 01011101110 011011111 1001111001 1111111001 111011101 111101011 1101011111 1101010101 1101011101 1111111101 101110101 111111011 11000110111 1111110111 101011001 0111011101 1111111101 110111001 011 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 868 |
Words | 165 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 1 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 343 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 82 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
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"An Angler" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56994/an-angler>.
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