Analysis of Special Pleading
Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)
Time, hurry my Love to me:
Haste, haste! Lov'st not good company?
Here's but a heart-break sandy waste
'Twixt Now and Then. Why, killing haste
Were best, dear Time, for thee, for thee!
Oh, would that I might divine
Thy name beyond the zodiac sign
Wherefrom our times-to-come descend.
He called thee `Sometime'. Change it, friend:
`Now-time' sounds so much more fine!
Sweet Sometime, fly fast to me:
Poor Now-time sits in the Lonesome-tree
And broods as gray as any dove,
And calls, `When wilt thou come, O Love?'
And pleads across the waste to thee.
Good Moment, that giv'st him me,
Wast ever in love? Maybe, maybe
Thou'lt be this heavenly velvet time
When Day and Night as rhyme and rhyme
Set lip to lip dusk-modestly;
Or haply some noon afar,
-- O life's top bud, mixt rose and star,
How ever can thine utmost sweet
Be star-consummate, rose-complete,
Till thy rich reds full opened are?
Well, be it dusk-time or noon-time,
I ask but one small boon, Time:
Come thou in night, come thou in day,
I care not, I care not: have thine own way,
But only, but only, come soon, Time.
Scheme | AABBA CCDDC AAEEA AAFFA GGHHG FFIIF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 1101111 11111100 11011101 11011101 01111111 1111101 11010101 11011101 1111111 1111111 111111 111100101 01111101 01111111 01010111 1101111 110011010 111100101 11011101 11111100 111101 11111101 1101111 11100101 11111101 11111111 1111111 11011101 1111111111 110110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,071 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 46 Views
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"Special Pleading" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34779/special-pleading>.
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