Analysis of The Two Masks
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
Melpomene among her livid people,
Ere stroke of lyre, upon Thaleia looks,
Warned by old contests that one museful ripple
Along those lips of rose with tendril hooks
Forebodes disturbance in the springs of pathos,
Perchance may change of masks midway demand,
Albeit the man rise mountainous as Athos,
The woman wild as Cape Leucadia stand.
For this the Comic Muse exacts of creatures
Appealing to the fount of tears: that they
Strive never to outleap our human features,
And do Right Reason's ordinance obey,
In peril of the hum to laughter nighest.
But prove they under stress of action's fire
Nobleness, to that test of Reason highest,
She bows: she waves them for the loftier lyre.
Scheme | ABABXCBC DEDECXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101010 11110111 1111011110 011111111 1010001110 011111101 01001110011 01011101001 11010101110 0101011111 11011101010 011110001 0101011101 11110111010 111111010 11111101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 678 |
Words | 120 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 275 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 114 Views
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