Analysis of Against Urania

Francis Thompson 1859 (City of Preston, Lancashire) – 1907 (London)



Lo I, Song's most true lover, plain me sore
That worse than other women she can deceive,
For she being goddess, I have given her more
Than mortal ladies from their loves receive;
And first of her embrace
She was not coy, and gracious were her ways,
That I forgot all virgins to adore;
Nor did I greatly grieve
To bear through arid days
The pretty foil of her divine delays;
And one by one to cast
Life, love, and health,
Content, and wealth,
Before her, thinking ever on her praise,
Until at last
Nought had I left she would be gracious for.
Now of her cozening I complain me sore,
Seeing her uses,
That still, more constantly she is pursued,
And straitlier wooed,
Her only-ador-ed favour more refuses,
And leaves me to implore
Remembered boon in bitterness of blood.

From mortal woman thou may'st know full well,
O poet, that dost deem the fair and tall
Urania of her ways not mutable,
When things shall thee befall
What thou art toil-ed in her sweet, wild spell.
Do they strow for thy feet
A little tender favour and deceit
Over the sudden mouth of hidden hell?--
As more intolerable
Her pit, as her first kiss is heavenlier-sweet.
Are they, the more thou sigh,
Still the more watchful-cruel to deny?--
Know this, that in her service thou shalt learn
How harder than the heart of woman is
The immortal cruelty
Of the high goddesses.
True is his witness who doth witness this,
Whose gaze too early fell--
Nor thence shall turn,
Nor in those fires shall cease to weep and burn--
Upon her ruinous eyes and ineludible.


Scheme ABABXCABCCDEECDAAFGGFAX HIJIHKKHJKLLMNXNXHMMH
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110111 11110101101 111010111001 1101011101 011001 1111010001 1101110101 111101 111101 0101100101 011111 1101 1001 0101010101 0111 1111111101 110110111 10010 1111001101 011 01001111010 011101 0101010011 11010111111 1101110101 11011100 111101 1111100111 111111 010101001 1001011101 1101000 011011111 110111 1011010101 1110010111 1101011101 001010 101100 1111011101 111101 1111 10110111101 010100101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,481
Words 280
Sentences 9
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 23, 21
Lines Amount 44
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 593
Words per stanza (avg) 138
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 07, 2023

1:24 min read
61

Francis Thompson

The Rt Rev Francis William Banahene Thompson was Bishop of Accra from 1983 to 1996. more…

All Francis Thompson poems | Francis Thompson Books

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