Analysis of The Indifferent
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
I can love both fair and brown;
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays;
Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays;
Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town;
Her who believes, and her who tries;
Her who still weeps with spongy eyes,
And her who is dry cork, and never cries.
I can love her, and her, and you, and you;
I can love any, so she be not true.
Will no other vice content you?
Will it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers?
Or have you all old vices spent and now would find out others?
Or doth a fear that men are true torment you?
O we are not, be not you so;
Let me--and do you--twenty know;
Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go.
Must I, who came to travel thorough you,
Grow your fix'd subject, because you are true?
Venus heard me sigh this song;
And by love's sweetest part, variety, she swore,
She heard not this till now, and that it should be so no more.
She went, examin'd, and return'd ere long,
And said, 'Alas! some two or three
Poor heretics in love there be,
Which think to stablish dangerous constancy.
But I told them, 'Since you will be true,
You shall be true to them who'are false to you'.'
Scheme | ABBACCCDD DEEDFFFDD GHHGIIIDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 010101001101 01111001101 0101010101 01010011 01111101 0011110101 1110000101 1111011111 11101101 1111111111110 111111010111110 1101111111 11111111 11011101 1111110111 1111110101 1110101111 1011111 011101010011 11111101111111 1101000111 01011111 110111 1111100100 111111111 11111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,148 |
Words | 234 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 290 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 77 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 01, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 106 Views
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"The Indifferent" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22600/the-indifferent>.
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