Analysis of Behold, As Goblins Dark Of Mien
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
BEHOLD, as goblins dark of mien
And portly tyrants dyed with crime
Change, in the transformation scene,
At Christmas, in the pantomime,
Instanter, at the prompter's cough,
The fairy bonnets them, and they
Throw their abhorred carbuncles off
And blossom like the flowers in May.
- So mankind, to angelic eyes,
So, through the scenes of life below,
In life's ironical disguise,
A travesty of man, ye go:
But fear not: ere the curtain fall,
Death in the transformation scene
Steps forward from her pedestal,
Apparent, as the fairy Queen;
And coming, frees you in a trice
From all your lendings - lust of fame,
Ungainly virtue, ugly vice,
Terror and tyranny and shame.
So each, at last himself, for good
In that dear country lays him down,
At last beloved and understood
And pure in feature and renown.
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE XAXA FGFG HIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 01110111 01010111 1000101 1100010 11011 0101101 110111 010101001 1111101 11011101 01010001 01001111 11110101 1000101 11010100 01010101 01011001 11110111 01010101 10010001 11110111 01110111 1101001 01010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 783 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 76 Views
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