Analysis of Elegy V: His Picture
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
Here take my picture; though I bid farewell
Thine, in my heart, where my soul dwells, shall dwell.
'Tis like me now, but I dead, 'twill be more
When we are shadows both, than 'twas before.
When weather-beaten I come back, my hand
Perhaps with rude oars torn, or sun beams tann'd,
My face and breast of haircloth, and my head
With care's rash sudden storms being o'erspread,
My body'a sack of bones, broken within,
And powder's blue stains scatter'd on my skin;
If rival fools tax thee to'have lov'd a man
So foul and coarse as, oh, I may seem then,
This shall say what I was, and thou shalt say,
'Do his hurts reach me? doth my worth decay?
Or do they reach his judging mind, that he
Should now love less, what he did love to see?
That which in him was fair and delicate,
Was but the milk which in love's childish state
Did nurse it; who now is grown strong enough
To feed on that, which to disus'd tastes seems tough.'
Scheme | AABBCCDCEEFGHHIIJKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 111101111 1011111111 1111111111 111111101 1101011111 0111111111 110111011 111101101 11001111001 011110111 11011111101 1101111111 1111110111 1111111101 1111110111 1111111111 1101110100 1101101101 1111111101 1111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 908 |
Words | 179 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 20 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 697 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 176 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 85 Views
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"Elegy V: His Picture" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22480/elegy-v%3A-his-picture>.
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