Analysis of A Prologue To The Scholars. A Comaedy Presented At The Whit
Richard Lovelace 1618 – 1657
A gentleman, to give us somewhat new,
Hath brought up OXFORD with him to show you;
Pray be not frighted--Tho the scaene and gown's
The Universities, the wit's the town's;
The lines each honest Englishman may speake:
Yet not mistake his mother-tongue for Greeke,
For stil 'twas part of his vow'd liturgie:--
From learned comedies deliver me!
Wishing all those that lov'd 'em here asleepe,
Promising SCHOLARS, but no SCHOLARSHIP.
You'd smile to see, how he do's vex and shake,
Speakes naught; but, if the PROLOGUE do's but take,
Or the first act were past the pikes once, then--
Then hopes and joys, then frowns and fears agen,
Then blushes like a virgin, now to be
Rob'd of his comicall virginity
In presence of you all. In short, you'd say
More hopes of mirth are in his looks then play.
These feares are for the noble and the wise;
But if 'mongst you there are such fowle dead eyes,
As can damne unaraign'd, cal law their pow'rs,
Judging it sin enough that it is ours,
And with the house shift their decreed desires,
FAIRE still to th' BLACKE, BLACKE still to the WHITE-FRYERS;
He do's protest he wil sit down and weep
Castles and pyramids . . .
. . . . . . No, he wil on,
Proud to be rais'd by such destruction,
So far from quarr'lling with himselfe and wit,
That he wil thank them for the benefit,
Since finding nothing worthy of their hate,
They reach him that themselves must envy at:
Scheme | AABBCCXDEE FFXADDBX BBBBBBEBXXGGXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0100111111 1111011111 111110101 001000101 0111010011 1101110111 11111111 111000101 101111111 100101110 1111111101 1111010111 1011010111 110111011 1101010111 11110100 0101110111 1111101111 1111010001 11111111011 11111111 10110111110 01011101010 1111111110110 111111101 100100 1111 111111010 11111101 1111110100 1101010111 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,398 |
Words | 250 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 8, 14 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 353 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 95 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 85 Views
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"A Prologue To The Scholars. A Comaedy Presented At The Whit" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30124/a-prologue-to-the-scholars.-a-comaedy-presented-at-the-whit>.
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