Analysis of The Old King's New Jester
Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869 – 1935
You that in vain would front the coming order
With eyes that meet forlornly what they must,
And only with a furtive recognition
See dust where there is dust,—
Be sure you like it always in your faces,
Obscuring your best graces,
Blinding your speech and sight,
Before you seek again your dusty places
Where the old wrong seems right.
Longer ago than cave-men had their changes
Our fathers may have slain a son o two,
Discouraging a further dialectic
Regarding what was new;
And after their unstudied admonition
Occasional contrition
For their old-fashioned ways
May have reduced their doubts, and in addition
Softened their final days.
Farther away than feet shall ever travel.
Are the vague towers of our unbuilded State;
But there are mightier things than we to lead us,
That will not let us wait.
And we go on with none to tell us whether
Or not we’ve each a tether
Determining how fast or how far we go;
And it is well, since we must go together,
That we are not to know.
If the old wrong and all its injured glamour
Haunts you by day and gives your night no peace,
You may as well, agreeably and serenely,
Give the new wrong its lease;
For should you nourish a too fervid yearning
For what is not returning,
The vicious and unfused ingredient
May give you qualms—and one or two concerning
The last of your content.
Scheme | ABCBDXEDE DFXFCCGCG XHXHAAIAI AJXJKKXKX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101010 11111111 0101010010 111111 1111110110 0101110 101101 01110111010 101111 10011111110 10101110111 0100010010 010111 01011010 0100010 111101 11011100010 101101 10011111010 1011011011 111100111111 111111 01111111110 1111010 01001111111 01111111010 111111 10110111010 1111011111 1111100100 101111 11110011010 1111010 010010100 11110111010 011110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,326 |
Words | 243 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 263 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 140 Views
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