Analysis of Matthew
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
IF Nature, for a favourite child,
In thee hath tempered so her clay,
That every hour thy heart runs wild,
Yet never once doth go astray,
Read o'er these lines; and then review
This tablet, that thus humbly rears
In such diversity of hue
Its history of two hundred years.
--When through this little wreck of fame,
Cipher and syllable! thine eye
Has travelled down to Matthew's name,
Pause with no common sympathy.
And, if a sleeping tear should wake,
Then be it neither checked nor stayed:
For Matthew a request I make
Which for himself he had not made.
Poor Matthew, all his frolics o'er,
Is silent as a standing pool;
Far from the chimney's merry roar,
And murmur of the village school.
The sighs which Matthew heaved were sighs
Of one tired out with fun and madness;
The tears which came to Matthew's eyes
Were tears of light, the dew of gladness.
Yet, sometimes, when the secret cup
Of still and serious thought went round,
It seemed as if he drank it up--
He felt with spirit so profound.
--Thou soul of God's best earthly mould!
Thou happy Soul! and can it be
That these two words of glittering gold
Are all that must remain of thee?
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEF GHGH XIXI JXJD KLKL MFMF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 1101011 01110101 1100101111 11011101 11011011 11011101 01010011 110011101 11110111 10010011 11011101 11110100 01010111 11110111 11000111 11011111 11011110 11010101 1101101 01010101 01110101 1110111010 01111101 01110111 10110101 110100111 11111111 11110101 11111101 11010111 111111001 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,118 |
Words | 211 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 14, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 349 Views
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"Matthew" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42262/matthew>.
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