Analysis of Change

George Wither 1588 (Bentworth) – 1667



The voice which I did more esteem
Than music in her sweetest key,
Those eyes which unto me did seem
More comfortable than the day,
These now by me as they have been
Shall never more be heard or seen,
But what I once enjoyed in them
Shall seem hereafter as a dream.

All earthly comforts vanish thus,
So little hold of them have we;
That we from them, or they from us,
May in a moment vanished be:
Yet we are neither just nor wise,
If present mercies we despise;
Or mind not how there may be made
A thankful use of what we had.


Scheme ABAXXXXA CBCBDDXX
Poetic Form
Metre 01111101 11000101 11110111 11000101 11111111 11011111 11110101 11010101 11010101 11011111 11111111 10010101 11110111 11010101 11111111 01011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 518
Words 108
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 204
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
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George Wither

George Wither was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style; he was several times imprisoned. C. V. Wedgwood wrote "every so often in the barren acres of his verse is a stretch enlivened by real wit and observation, or fired with a sudden intensity of feeling". more…

All George Wither poems | George Wither Books

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