Analysis of The Perverted Village After Goldsmith
Sweet Auburn! liveliest village of the plain,
Where Health and Slander welcome every train,
Whence smiling innocence, its tribute paid,
Retires in terror, wounded and dismayed
Dear lovely bowers of gossip and disease,
Whose climate cures us that thy dames may tease,
How often have I knelt upon thy green
And prayed for death, to mitigate their spleen!
How often have I paused on every charm
With mingled admiration and alarm
The brook that runs by many a scandal-mill,
The church whose pastor groans upon the grill,
The cowthorn bush with seats beneath the shade,
Where hearts are struck and reputations flayed;
How often wished thine idle wives, some day,
Might more at whist, less at the devil, play.
Unblest retirement! ere my life's decline
(Killed by detraction) may I witness thine.
How happy she who, shunning shades like these,
Finds in a wolf-den greater peace and ease;
Who quits the place whence truth did earlier fly,
And rather than come back prefers to die!
For her no jealous maids renounce their sleep,
Contriving malices to make her weep;
No iron-faced dames her character debate
And spurn imploring mercy from the gate;
But down she lies to a more peaceful end,
For wolves do not calumniate, but rend
Sinks piecemeal to their maws, a willing prey,
While resignation lubricates the way,
And all her prospects brighten at the last:
To wolves, not women, an approved repast.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFBBGG HHCCIIJJKKXBGGXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 11010101001 1101001101 0101010001 11010110001 1101111111 1101110111 011111011 11011111001 110010001 01111100101 0111010101 011110101 111100101 1101110111 1111110101 1010011101 11111101 1101110111 1001110101 11011111001 0101110111 1011010111 111101 11011010001 0101010101 1111101101 1111111 111110101 1010101 0101010101 111101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,367 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 16 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 556 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 134 Views
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"The Perverted Village After Goldsmith" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1960/the-perverted-village-after-goldsmith>.
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