Analysis of To A Friend Who Had Declared His Intention Of Writing No More Poetry
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 (Ottery St Mary) – 1834 (Highgate)
Dear Charles! whilst yet thou wert a babe, I ween
That Genius plunged thee in that wizard fount
High Castalie: and (sureties of thy faith)
That Pity and Simplicity stood by.
And promised for thee that thou shouldst renounce
The world's low cares and lying vanities,
Steadfast and rooted in the heavenly Muse,
And washed and sanctified to Poesy.
Yes -- thou wert plunged but with forgetful hand
Held, as by Thetis erst her warrior son:
And with those recreant unbaptized heels
Thou'rt flying from thy bounden minist'ries--
So sore it seems and burthensome a task
To weave unwithering flowers! But take thou heed:
For thou art vulnerable, wild-eyed boy,
And I have arrows mystically dipt,
Such as may stop thy speed. Is thy Burns dead?
And shall he die unwept, and sink to earth
'Without the meed of one melodious tear?'
Thy Burns, and Nature's own beloved bard,
Who to the 'Illustrious of his native Land,
So properly did look for patronage.'
Ghost of Maecenas! hide thy blushing face!
They snatched him from the sickle and the plough--
To gauge ale-firkins.
Oh! for shame return!
On a bleak rock, midway the Aonian mount,
There stands a lone and melancholy tree,
Whose aged branches to the midnight blast
Make solemn music: pluck its darkest bough,
Ere yet the unwholesome night-dew be exhaled,
And weeping wreath it round thy Poet's tomb.
Then in the outskirts, where pollutions grow,
Pick the rank henbane and the dusky flowers
Of night-shade, or its red and tempting fruit,
These with stopped nostril and glove-guarded hand
Knit in nice intertexture, so to twine,
The illustrious brow of Scotch Nobility.
Scheme | ABCDEFGEBAHEIBJBBKLBBMNOPABQBOBRSTBBAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110111 1101101101 1101111 1100010011 0101111101 0111010100 1010001001 010111 1111110101 11110101001 011111 1101111 11110101 111101111 1111000111 0111011 1111111111 011110111 01011101001 110101011 110010011101 1100111100 11111101 1111010001 11110 11101 10111011 110101001 11101011 1101011101 110111101 0101111101 1001111 101100110 1111110101 1111001101 1011111 001001110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,579 |
Words | 277 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 38 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,272 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 273 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 47 Views
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"To A Friend Who Had Declared His Intention Of Writing No More Poetry" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34375/to-a-friend-who-had-declared-his-intention-of-writing-no-more-poetry>.
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