Analysis of Elegy Upon Tiger
Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)
Her dead lady's joy and comfort,
Who departed this life
The last day of March, 1727:
To the great joy of Bryan
That his antagonist is gone.
And is poor Tiger laid at last so low?
O day of sorrow! -Day of dismal woe!
Bloodhounds, or spaniels, lap-dogs, 'tis all one,
When Death once whistles -snap! -away they're gone.
See how she lies, and hangs her lifeless ears,
Bathed in her mournful lady's tears!
Dumb is her throat, and wagless is her tail,
Doomed to the grave, to Death's eternal jail!
In a few days this lovely creature must
First turn to clay, and then be changed to dust.
That mouth which used its lady's mouth to lick
Must yield its jaw-bones to the worms to pick.
That mouth which used the partridge-wing to eat
Must give its palate to the worms to eat.
Methinks I see her now in Charon's boat
Bark at the Stygian fish which round it float;
While Cerberus, alarmed to hear the sound,
Makes Hell's wide concave bellow all around.
She sees him not, but hears him through the dark,
And valiantly returns him bark for bark.
But now she trembles -though a ghost, she dreads
To see a dog with three large yawning heads.
Spare her, you hell-hounds, case your frightful paws,
And let poor Tiger 'scape your furious jaws.
Let her go safe to the Elysian plains,
Where Hylax barks among the Mantuan swains;
There let her frisk about her new-found love:
She loved a dog when she was here above.
Here lies beneath this marble
An animal could bark, or warble:
Sometimes a bitch, sometimes a bird,
Could eat a tart, or eat a t -.
Scheme | XXXAB CCABDXEEFFGGHH IIJJKKLLMMXDNN OOXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01101010 101011 01111 1011110 11010011 0111011111 1111011101 101111111 1111010111 1111010101 10010101 110101101 1101110101 0011110101 1111011111 1111110111 1111110111 1111010111 1111010111 11101011 11010011111 11011101 1110110101 1111111101 0100011111 111110111 1101111101 1011111101 01110111001 10111011 11101011 1101010111 1101111101 1101110 110011110 01010101 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,509 |
Words | 288 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 14, 14, 4 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 294 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 105 Views
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"Elegy Upon Tiger" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24269/elegy-upon-tiger>.
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