Analysis of The Invective of Achilles

George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)



[Iliad, B. I. V. 149]

'Heigh me! brazen of front, thou glutton for plunder, how can one,
Servant here to thy mandates, heed thee among our Achaians,
Either the mission hie on or stoutly do fight with the foemen?
I, not hither I fared on account of the spear-armed Trojans,
Pledged to the combat; they unto me have in nowise a harm done;
Never have they, of a truth, come lifting my horses or oxen;
Never in deep-soiled Phthia, the nurser of heroes, my harvests
Ravaged, they; for between us is numbered full many a darksome
Mountain, ay, therewith too the stretch of the windy sea-waters.
O hugely shameless! thee did we follow to hearten thee, justice
Pluck from the Dardans for him, Menelaos, thee too, thou dog-eyed!
Whereof little thy thought is, nought whatever thou reckest.
Worse, it is thou whose threat 'tis to ravish my prize from me, portion
Won with much labour, the which my gift from the sons of Achaia.
Never, in sooth, have I known my prize equal thine when Achaians
Gave some flourishing populous Trojan town up to pillage.
Nay, sure, mine were the hands did most in the storm of the combat,
Yet when came peradventure share of the booty amongst us,
Bigger to thee went the prize, while I some small blessed thing bore
Off to the ships, my share of reward for my toil in the bloodshed!
So now go I to Phthia, for better by much it beseems me
Homeward go with my beaked ships now, and I hold not in prospect,
I being outraged, thou mayst gather here plunder and wealth-store.'


Scheme A BCBCBBCXCCDDBXCXXCEXAXE
Poetic Form
Metre 100111 11101111110111 1011111101101 100101111011101 111011101101110 110101101101011 1011101110110110 10011101110110 101101111011001 10111011010110 1101011110110110 110111111111 11011111011 111111111111110 1111011110111 10011111110111 111001001011110 111001110011010 111111010011 10111011111111 110111101111001 11111111011111 101111110111010 11011110110011
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,477
Words 275
Sentences 14
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 1, 23
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 48
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 581
Words per stanza (avg) 136
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:22 min read
49

George Meredith

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. more…

All George Meredith poems | George Meredith Books

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