Analysis of Being waked out of my sleep by a snuff of Candle which offended me, I thus thought

Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)



Perhaps 'twas but conceit. Erroneous sence!
Thou art thine own distemper and offence.
Imagine then, that sick unwholsom steam
Was thy corruption breath'd into a dream.
Nor is it strange, when we in charnells dwell,
That all our thoughts of earth and frailty smell.
Man is a Candle, whose unhappy light
Burns in the day, and smothers in the night.
And as you see the dying taper waste,
By such degrees does he to darkness haste.
Here is the diff'rence: When our bodies lamps
Blinded by age, or choakt with mortall damps,
Now faint and dim and sickly 'gin to wink,
And in their hollow sockets lowly sink;
When all our vital fires ceasing to burn,
Leave nought but snuff and ashes in our Urn:
God will restore those fallen lights again,
And kindle them to an Eternal flame.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEAAFFGGHI
Poetic Form
Metre 01110101001 111101001 01011111 1101010101 111111011 11101110101 1101010101 1001010001 0111010101 1101111101 1101110101 101111111 1101010111 0011010101 111010101011 11110100101 1101110101 0101110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 778
Words 141
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 606
Words per stanza (avg) 139
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
33

Henry King

Henry King was an English poet who served as Bishop of Chichester. more…

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