Analysis of Sweet Content

Thomas Dekker 1572 – 1632



ART thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?
   O sweet content!
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex'd?
   O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex'd
To add to golden numbers golden numbers?
   O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny--hey nonny nonny!

Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring?
   O sweet content!
Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?
   O punishment!
Then he that patiently want's burden bears,
No burden bears, but is a king, a king!
   O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny--hey nonny nonny!


Scheme aBcDcaBAAE fBaDafBAAE
Poetic Form Tetractys  (40%)
Etheree  (25%)
Metre 111111101 1110 111111101 1100 111111111 11110101010 1110111110 101010101 10110101 1111111 110101011 1110 111011110111 1100 1111001101 1101110101 1110111110 101010101 10110101 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 745
Words 128
Sentences 17
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 10
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 276
Words per stanza (avg) 63
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
102

Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker was an English Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists. more…

All Thomas Dekker poems | Thomas Dekker Books

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