Analysis of The Respectable Burgher on "The Higher Criticism"
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Since Reverend Doctors now declare
That clerks and people must prepare
To doubt if Adam ever were;
To hold the flood a local scare;
To argue, though the stolid stare,
That everything had happened ere
The prophets to its happening sware;
That David was no giant-slayer,
Nor one to call a God-obeyer
In certain details we could spare,
But rather was a debonair
Shrewd bandit, skilled as banjo-player:
That Solomon sang the fleshly Fair,
And gave the Church no thought whate'er;
That Esther with her royal wear,
And Mordecai, the son of Jair,
And Joshua's triumphs, Job's despair,
And Balaam's ass's bitter blare;
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace-flare,
And Daniel and the den affair,
And other stories rich and rare,
Were writ to make old doctrine wear
Something of a romantic air:
That the Nain widow's only heir,
And Lazarus with cadaverous glare
(As done in oils by Piombo's care)
Did not return from Sheol's lair:
That Jael set a fiendish snare,
That Pontius Pilate acted square,
That never a sword cut Malchus' ear
And (but for shame I must forbear)
That -- -- did not reappear! . . .
- Since thus they hint, nor turn a hair,
All churchgoing will I forswear,
And sit on Sundays in my chair,
And read that moderate man Voltaire.
Scheme | AABAAAABAAABABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACADAAAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110010101 11010101 11110100 11010101 11010101 1101101 010111001 110111010 1111011 01001111 1101001 11011110 11001011 01011110 11010101 0100111 0110101 011101 1101 01000101 01010101 01111101 10100101 10110101 0100111 1101111 1101111 1110101 1101101 11001111 0111111 11101 11111101 1101101 0111011 011100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,230 |
Words | 213 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 36 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 952 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 214 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 148 Views
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"The Respectable Burgher on "The Higher Criticism"" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36549/the-respectable-burgher-on-%22the-higher-criticism%22>.
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