Analysis of Verses III
Charlotte Smith 1749 (London) – 1806 (Tilford, Surrey)
Written by the same lady on seeing her two sons
at play.
SWEET age of bless'd delusion! blooming boys,
Ah! revel long in childhood's thoughtless joys,
With light and pliant spirits, that can stoop
To follow, sportively, the rolling hoop;
To watch the sleeping top with gay delight,
Or mark, with raptured gaze, the sailing kite;
Or, eagerly pursuing Pleasure's call,
Can find it center'd in the bounding ball.
Alas! the day will come, when sports like these
Must lose their magic, and their power to please:
Too swiftly fled, the rosy hours of youth
Shall yield their fairy charms to mournful Truth;
Even now, a mother's fond prophetic fear
Sees the dark train of human ills appear;
Views various fortune for each lovely child,
Storms for the bold, and anguish for the mild;
Beholds already those expressive eyes
Beam a sad certainty of future sighs;
And dreads each suffering those dear breasts may know
In their long passage through a world of woe;
Perchance predestined every pang to prove,
That treacherous friends inflict, or faithless love;
For, ah! how few have found existence sweet,
Where grief is sure, but happiness deceit.
Scheme | XXAABB CCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJXXKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010110110011 11 1111010101 110101101 1101010111 11010101 1101011101 111110101 110001011 1111000101 0101111111 11110011011 11010101011 1111011101 10101010101 1011110101 11001011101 1101010101 101010101 1011001101 01110011111 0111010111 0110100111 1100101111 1111110101 1111110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,118 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 20 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 451 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 96 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 89 Views
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