Analysis of The Friend of Humanity, and the Knife-Grinder
John Hookham Frere 1769 – 1846
FRIEND OF HUMANITY.
"Needy Knife-grinder! whether are you going?
Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order--
Bleak blows the Blast;--your hat has got a hole in't,
So have your breeches!
"Weary Knife-grinder! little think the proud ones
Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike-
-road, what hard work 'tis crying all day, 'Knives and
'Scissars to grind O!'
"Tell me Knife-grinder, how came you to grind knives?
Did some rich man tyrannically use you?
Was it the squire? or parson of the parish;
Or the attorney?
"Was it the squire, for killing of his game? or
Covetous parson, for his tithes distraining?
Or roguish lawyer, made you lose your little
All in a lawsuit?
"(Have you not read the Rights of Man, by Tom Paine?)
Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids,
Ready to fall, as soon as you have told your
Pitiful story."
"Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, Sir,
Only last night a-drinking at the Chequers,
This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were
Torn in a scuffle.
"Constables came up for to take me into
Custody; they took me before the justice;
Justice Oldmixon put me in the parish-
stocks for a vagrant.
"I should be glad to drink your Honor's health in
A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence;
But for my part, I never love to meddle
With Politics, Sir."
FRIEND OF HUMANITY.
"I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damn'd first--
Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance--
Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
Spiritless outcast!"
Kicks the Knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of Republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.
Scheme | A bcad dxxx defa gbhx xdga cdch edfx xdhc A xdxx a |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100 10110101110 11011111110 110111110101 1111 10110101011 1011010101 11111101110 1111 11110111111 1111111 11011101010 10010 11011101111 1101111 1110111110 1001 11110111111 1101010111 10111111111 10010 110111111111 1011010101 1111011110 10010 10011111101 10011101010 101110010 11010 11111111010 0111111111 11111101110 1101 110100 1111111111 11111111110 10010100010 11 101101011010000110100010000100100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,597 |
Words | 293 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 85 Views
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