Analysis of Salad



To make this condiment, your poet begs
    The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled eggs;
    Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen-sieve,
    Smoothness and softness to the salad give;
    Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
    And, half-suspected, animate the whole.
    Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
    Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
    But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault,
    To add a double quantity of salt.
    And, lastly, o'er the flavored compound toss
    A magic soup-spoon of anchovy sauce.
    Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!
    'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat;
    Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,
    And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl!
    Serenely full, the epicure would say,
    Fate can not harm me, I have dined to-day!


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGGCCHH
Poetic Form
Metre 1111001101 0101011111 1101011101 1001010101 1101010101 0101010001 1101010101 0101001111 1111111101 1101010011 01010010101 0101110101 11010010101 11010111 1101111101 0111000101 0100101011 1111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 806
Words 129
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 590
Words per stanza (avg) 129
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Submitted by naama on July 15, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
34

Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer and Anglican cleric. more…

All Sydney Smith poems | Sydney Smith Books

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