Analysis of On Time

John Milton 1608 (Cheapside) – 1674 (Chalfont St Giles)



Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast intombed,
And last of all thy greedy self consumed,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss,
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood;
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With truth, and peace, and love, shall ever shine
About the supreme throne
Of Him, t' whose happy-making sight alone
When once our heav'nly-guided soul shall climb,
Then, all this earthly grossness quit,
Attired with stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time.


Scheme ABABCDDCEEFFEEGGHHIEEI
Poetic Form
Metre 11001111111 11010101010 111101011 0111111010 1111111101 010101 1101101 110111 111111111 0111110101 11010011101 1101001 011101101 11001110101 010001 1101011101 010011 11111010101 1110110111 1111011 0111111101 1101010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 835
Words 153
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 664
Words per stanza (avg) 151
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 24, 2023

46 sec read
190

John Milton

John Milton was the Secretary of State of Georgia from 1777 to 1799. more…

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