Analysis of Natural Theology
I ate my fill of a whale that died
And stranded after a month at sea. . . .
There is a pain in my inside.
Why have the Gods afflicted me?
Ow! I am purged till I am a wraith!
Wow! I am sick till I cannot see!
What is the sense of Religion and Faith:
Look how the Gods have afflicted me!
How can the skin of rat or mouse hold
Anything more than a harmless flea?. . .
The burning plague has taken my household.
Why have my Gods afflicted me?
All my kith and kin are deceased,
Though they were as good as good could be,
I will out and batter the family priest,
Because my Gods have afflicted me!
My privy and well drain into each other
After the custom of Christendie. . . .
Fevers and fluxes are wasting my mother.
Why has the Lord afflicted me?
The Saints are helpless for all I offer--
So are the clergy I used to fee.
Henceforward I keep my cash in my coffer,
Because the Lord has afflicted me.
I run eight hundred hens to the acre
They die by dozens mysteriously. . . .
I am more than doubtful concerning my Maker,
Why has the Lord afflicted me?
What a return for all my endeavour--
Not to mention the L. S. D!
I am an atheist now and for ever,
Because this God has afflicted me!
Money spent on an Army or Fleet
Is homicidal lunacy. . . .
My son has been killed in the Mons retreat,
Why is the Lord afflicting me?
Why are murder, pillage and arson
And rape allowed by the Deity?
I will write to the Times, deriding our parson
Because my God has afflicted me.
We had a kettle: we let it leak:
Our not repairing it made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week. . .
The bottom is out of the Universe!
This was none of the good Lord's pleasure,
For the Spirit He breathed in Man is free;
But what comes after is measure for measure,
And not a God that afflicteth thee.
As was the sowing so the reaping
Is now and evermore shall be.
Thou art delivered to thine own keeping.
Only Thyself hath afflicted thee!
Scheme | ababcbcb dbdbebeb fafBfbfb fbfBfbfb gbgbhbhb ijij fbfbkbkb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110111 010100111 11010101 11010101 111111101 111111101 1101101001 110110101 110111111 10110101 010111011 11110101 11101101 110111111 11101001001 011110101 11001101110 1001011 1001110110 11010101 0111011110 110101111 111110110 010110101 1111011010 111101000 111110010110 11010101 1001111010 11100111 11110010110 011110101 101111011 1010100 1111100101 11010101 111010010 010110100 1111010101010 011110101 110101111 1010101111 1101101101 010111010 111101110 1010110111 11110110110 0101111 110101010 1101011 1101011110 10110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,921 |
Words | 378 |
Sentences | 51 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4, 8 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 207 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:54 min read
- 202 Views
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"Natural Theology" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33293/natural-theology>.
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