Analysis of Deeds
Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)
'Tis well with words, oh masters, ye have sought,
To turn men's eyes yearning to the great and true,
Yet first take heed to what your own hands do;
By deeds not words the souls of men are taught;
Good lives alone are fruitful; they are caught
Into the fountain of all life (wherethrough
Men's souls that drink are broken or made new)
Like drops of heavenly elixir, fraught
With the clear essence of eternal youth.
Even one little deed of weak untruth
Is like a drop of quenchless venom cast,
A liquid thread, into life's feeding stream,
Woven forever with its crystal gleam,
Bearing the seed of death and woe at last.
Scheme | ABBACBBADDEFFE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110111 11111010101 1111111111 1111011111 1101110111 010101111 1111110111 1111000101 1011010101 1011011101 110111101 0101011101 1001011101 1001110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 612 |
Words | 115 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 485 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 113 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 57 Views
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"Deeds" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3626/deeds>.
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