Analysis of To John Milton
John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)
_'From his honoured friend, William Davenant'_
Poet of mighty power, I fain
Would court the muse that honoured thee,
And, like Elisha's spirit, gain
A part of thy intensity;
And share the mantle which she flung
Around thee, when thy lyre was strung.
Though faction's scorn at first did shun
With coldness thy inspired song,
Though clouds of malice passed thy sun,
They could not hide it long;
Its brightness soon exhaled away
Dank night, and gained eternal day.
The critics' wrath did darkly frown
Upon thy muse's mighty lay;
But blasts that break the blossom down
Do only stir the bay;
And thine shall flourish, green and long,
With the eternity of song.
Thy genius saw, in quiet mood,
Gilt fashion's follies pass thee by,
And, like the monarch of the wood,
Towered oer it to the sky,
Where thou couldst sing of other spheres,
And feel the fame of future years.
Though bitter sneers and stinging scorns
Did throng the muse's dangerous way,
Thy powers were past such little thorns,
They gave thee no dismay;
The scoffer's insult passed thee by,
Thou smild'st and mad'st him no reply.
Envy will gnaw its heart away
To see thy genius gather root;
And as its flowers their sweets display
Scorn's malice shall be mute;
Hornets that summer warmed to fly,
Shall at the death of summer die.
Though friendly praise hath but its hour.
And little praise with thee hath been;
The bay may lose its summer flower,
But still its leaves are green;
And thine, whose buds are on the shoot,
Shall only fade to change to fruit.
Fame lives not in the breath of words,
In public praises' hue and cry;
The music of these summer birds
Is silent in a winter sky,
When thine shall live and flourish on,
Oer wrecks where crowds of fames are gone.
The ivy shuns the city wall,
When busy clamorous crowds intrude,
And climbs the desolated hall
In silent solitude;
The time-worn arch, the fallen dome,
Are roots for its eternal home.
The bard his glory neer receives
Where summer's common flowers are seen,
But winter finds it when she leaves
The laurel only green;
And time from that eternal tree,
Shall weave a wreath to honour thee;
A sunny wreath for poets meet,
From Helicon's immortal soil,
Where sacred Time with pilgrim feet
Walks forth to worship, not to spoil,
A wreath which Fame creates and bears,
And deathless genius only heirs.
Nought but thy ashes shall expire;
Thy genius, at thy obsequies,
Shall kindle up its living fire
And light the muse's skies;
Ay, it shall rise, and shine, and be
A sun in song's posterity.
Scheme | A BCBADD EFEFGA HGHGFF AIAIJJ KGKGII GAGAIA LXLMAA NINIXX OAOAPP QMQMCC ARARSS XJLXCA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 101101011 1101111 011101 01110100 01010111 01111111 1111111 11010101 11110111 111111 11010101 11010101 01011101 0111101 11110101 110101 01110101 10010011 11010101 11010111 0101101 1011101 11111101 01011101 11010101 11011001 110011101 111101 0101111 110111101 10111101 11110101 011101101 110111 10110111 11011101 110111110 01011111 011111010 111111 01111101 11011111 11100111 01010101 01011101 11000101 11110101 11111111 01010101 1101101 01011 01010 01110101 11110101 01110101 110101011 11011111 010101 01110101 1101111 01011101 110101 11011101 11110111 01110101 0110101 11110101 110111 110111010 01011 11110101 01010100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,438 |
Words | 449 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 73 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 151 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:19 min read
- 129 Views
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"To John Milton" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22354/to-john-milton>.
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