Analysis of Farewell to Love
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
Whilst yet to prove,
I thought there was some deity in love
So did I reverence, and gave
Worship, as atheists at their dying hour
Call, what they cannot name, an unknown power,
As ignorantly did I crave:
Thus when
Things not yet known are coveted by men,
Our desires give them fashion, and so
As they wax lesser, fall, as they size, grow.
But, from late fair
His highness sitting in a golden chair,
Is not less cared for after three days
By children, than the thing which lovers so
Blindly admire, and with such worship woo;
Being had, enjoying it decays:
And thence,
What before pleased them all, takes but one sense,
And that so lamely, as it leaves behind
A kind of sorrowing dullness to the mind.
Ah cannot we,
As well as cocks and lions jocund be,
After such pleasures ? Unless wise
Nature decreed (since each such act, they say
Diminish the length of life a day)
This; as she would man should despise
The sport,
Because that other curse of being short,
And only for a minute made to be
Eager, desires to raise posterity.
Since so, my mind
Shall not desire what no man else can find,
I`ll no more dote and run
To purse things which had, endamaged me.
And when I come where moving beauties be,
As men do when the summer’s sun
Grows great,
Though I admire their greatness, shun their heat;
Each place can afford shadow. If all fail,
’Tis but applying worm-seed to the tail.
Scheme | XXABBACCDD EEFDXFGGHH IIJKKJLLII HHMIIMXXNN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (28%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1111 1111110001 11110001 101100111010 11110110110 11111 11 1111110011 10010111001 1111011111 1111 1101000101 111111011 1101011101 1001011101 101010101 01 1011111111 0111011101 011110101 1101 111101011 10110011 1001111111 010011101 11111101 01 0111011101 0101010111 10010110100 1111 11010111111 111101 1111111 0111110101 11110101 11 1101110111 111011111 1101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,350 |
Words | 258 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 268 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 257 Views
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