Analysis of Strange Jokes
Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)
Well: Death is a huge omnivorous Toad
Grim squatting on a twilight road.
He catcheth all that Circumstance
Hath tossed to him.
He curseth all who upward glance
As lost to him.
Once in a whimsey mood he sat
And talked of life, in proverbs pat,
To Eve in Eden, -- "Death, on Life" --
As if he knew!
And so he toadied Adam's wife
There, in the dew.
O dainty dew, O morning dew
That gleamed in the world's first dawn, did you
And the sweet grass and manful oaks
Give lair and rest
To him who toadwise sits and croaks
His death-behest?
Who fears the hungry Toad? Not I!
He but unfetters me to fly.
The German still, when one is dead,
Cries out "Der Tod!"
But, pilgrims, Christ will walk ahead
And clear the road.
Scheme | AABCBC DDEFEF FFXGBG HHIXIA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101001 1101011 111110 1111 1111101 1111 1001111 01110101 11010111 1111 0111101 1001 11011101 110011111 0011011 1101 1111101 1101 11010111 111111 01011111 1111 11011101 0101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 718 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 134 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 28 Views
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