Analysis of To My Empty Purse
Geoffrey Chaucer 1343 (London) – 1400 (London)
To you, my purse, and to none other wight,
Complain I, for ye be my lady dere;
I am sorry now that ye be light,
For, certes, ye now make me heavy chere;
Me were as lefe be laid upon a bere,
For which unto your mercy thus I crie,
Be heavy againe, or els mote I die.
Now vouchsafe this day or it be night,
That I of you the blissful sowne may here,
Or see your color like the sunne bright,
That of yellowness had never pere;
Ye are my life, ye be my hertes stere,
Queen of comfort and of good companie,
Be heavy againe, or els mote I die.
Now purse, thou art to me my lives light,
And saviour, as downe in this world here,
Out of this towne helpe me by your might,
Sith that you will not be my treasure,
For I am slave as nere as any frere,
But I pray unto your curtesie,
Be heavy againe, or els mote I die.
Scheme | ababbbC ababbxC ababbxC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101 0111111101 111011111 111111101 1011110101 1110110111 110111111 11111111 1111010111 111101011 1111101 111111111 11100111 110111111 111111111 01110111 111111111 111111110 1111111101 1111011 110111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 813 |
Words | 175 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 201 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 44 Views
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"To My Empty Purse" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55328/to-my-empty-purse>.
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