Analysis of A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day, Being The Shortest Day
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;
The world's whole sap is sunk;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compar'd with me, who am their epitaph.
Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring;
For I am every dead thing,
In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness;
He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.
All others, from all things, draw all that's good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;
I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
Of all that's nothing. Oft a flood
Have we two wept, and so
Drown'd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow
To be two chaoses, when we did show
Care to aught else; and often absences
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.
But I am by her death (which word wrongs her)
Of the first nothing the elixir grown;
Were I a man, that I were one
I needs must know; I should prefer,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love; all, all some properties invest;
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light and body must be here.
But I am none; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all;
Since she enjoys her long night's festival,
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is.
Scheme | AAXABBBCC DEEDXFFXX XXXXGGGHH IXJIXKKIX LJJLMXMXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 101101101 1111010011 01110111 11111101 011111 01001111111 1011011111 101111111 011111110 1011111101 1011111011 11110011 01111100 111101 0010101100 1101001100 1101011101 1101011111 1101111111 1111011101 1111101 11110101 111101 1011111111 11111111 1111010100 01101011100 1111011110 1011000101 01011101 11111101 110101 1111111101 0111110001 111100100 1101010111 1111111101 1101110101 11110111 11110111 011101 1101011100 11010100111 11001000111 101001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,973 |
Words | 341 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 270 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 68 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 140 Views
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"A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day, Being The Shortest Day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22452/a-nocturnal-upon-st.-lucy%27s-day%2C-being-the-shortest-day>.
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