Analysis of To Shakespeare

Lord Alfred Douglas 1870 (Worcestershire) – 1945 (Lancing)



Most tuneful singer, lover tenderest,
Most sad, most piteous, and most musical,
Thine is the shrine more pilgrim-worn than all
The shrines of singers; high above the rest
Thy trumpet sounds most loud, most manifest.
Yet better were it if a lonely call
Of woodland birds, a song, a madrigal,
Were all the jetsam of thy sea's unrest.

For now thy praises have become too loud
On vulgar lips, and every yelping cur
Yaps thee a paean ; the whiles little men,
Not tall enough to worship in a crowd,
Spit their small wits at thee. Ah ! better then
The broken shrine, the lonely worshipper.


Scheme ABCAACBA ADEAED
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101 111101100 1101110111 0111010101 110111110 1100110101 111010100 010111101 1111010111 11010100101 1101001101 1101110001 1111111101 01010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 577
Words 106
Sentences 6
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 228
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

32 sec read
87

Lord Alfred Douglas

Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde. Much of his early poetry was Uranian in theme, though he tended, later in life, to distance himself from both Wilde's influence and his own role as a Uranian poet. more…

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    Who wrote the poem ״Invictus״?
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    B Thomas Hardy
    C Oscar Wilde
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