Analysis of The Chinese Pagoda
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
WHENE'ER a person is a poet,
No matter what the pang may be;
Does not at once the public know it ?
Witness each newspaper we see.
“The parting look,” “the bitter token,”
“The last despair,” “the first distress;”
“The anguish of a heart that’s broken—”
Do not these crowd the daily press ?
If then our misnamed “heartless city,”
Can so much sympathy bestow;
If there is so much public pity
For every kind of private woe ;
Why not for me ?—my care’s more real
Than that of all this rhyming band;
Whose hearts and tears are all ideal,
A sort of joint-stock kept on hand.
I’m one of those, I do confess,
Whom pity greatly can console ;
To tell, is almost to redress,
Whate’er the “sorrow of my soul.”
Now, I who thought the first* vexatious,
Despaired, and knew not what to do,
Abused the stars, called fate ungracious—
Here is a second Chinese view !
I sent to Messrs. Fisher, saying
The simple fact—I could not write ;
What was the use of my inveighing ?—
Back came the fatal scroll that night.
“But, madam, such a fine engraving,
The country, too, so little known!”
One’s publisher there is no braving—
The plate was work’d, “the dye was thrown.”
But what’s impossible, can never,
By any hazard come to be,
It is impossible that ever
This place can furnish hints to me.
O Captain Elliot, what could make you
Forsake the Indian fanes of yore ?
And what in mercy’s name could take you
To this most stupid Chinese shore ?
If in this world there is an object,
For pity which may stand alone,
It is a poet with no subject,
Or with a picture worse than none.
Scheme | XAXA BCBC ADAD EFEF CGCG XHCH IJIJ IKIK LALA HMHM NKNB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (91%) |
Metre | 10101010 11010111 111101011 1011011 010101010 01010101 010101110 11110101 111011010 11110001 111111010 110011101 11111111 11111101 11011101 01111111 11111101 11010110 1111101 1010111 111101010 01011111 0101111 11010011 111101010 01011111 1101111 11010111 110101010 01011101 110011110 01110111 100100110 11010111 110100110 11110111 1101001111 010100111 01011111 11110011 101111110 11011101 110101101 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,578 |
Words | 295 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
Font size:
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Chinese Pagoda" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/45106/the-chinese-pagoda>.
Discuss this Letitia Elizabeth Landon poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In