Analysis of On The Posteriors
Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)
Because I am by nature blind,
I wisely choose to walk behind;
However, to avoid disgrace,
I let no creature see my face.
My words are few, but spoke with sense;
And yet my speaking gives offence:
Or, if to whisper I presume,
The company will fly the room.
By all the world I am opprest:
And my oppression gives them rest.
Through me, though sore against my will,
Instructors every art instil.
By thousands I am sold and bought,
Who neither get nor lose a groat;
For none, alas! by me can gain,
But those who give me greatest pain.
Shall man presume to be my master,
Who's but my caterer and taster?
Yet, though I always have my will,
I'm but a mere depender still:
An humble hanger-on at best;
Of whom all people make a jest.
In me detractors seek to find
Two vices of a different kind;
I'm too profuse, some censurers cry,
And all I get, I let it fly;
While others give me many a curse,
Because too close I hold my purse.
But this I know, in either case,
They dare not charge me to my face.
'Tis true, indeed, sometimes I save,
Sometimes run out of all I have;
But, when the year is at an end,
Computing what I get and spend,
My goings-out, and comings-in,
I cannot find I lose or win;
And therefore all that know me say,
I justly keep the middle way.
I'm always by my betters led;
I last get up, and first a-bed;
Though, if I rise before my time,
The learn'd in sciences sublime
Consult the stars, and thence foretell
Good luck to those with whom I dwell.
Scheme | AABBCBDDAEFFGHIIJJFFEEAAKKLLBBMNOOPPQQRRSSTT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111101 11011101 1010101 11110111 11111111 0111011 11110101 01001101 1101111 01010111 11110111 01010011 11011101 11011101 11011111 11111101 110111110 111100010 1111111 110111 11010111 11110101 01010111 110101001 1101111 01111111 110111001 01111111 11110101 11111111 11010111 01111111 11011111 01011101 11010100 11011111 0111111 11010101 1111101 11110101 11110111 01010001 01010101 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,422 |
Words | 286 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 44 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 284 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 45 Views
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"On The Posteriors" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24302/on-the-posteriors>.
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