Analysis of From Love to Friendship
Voltaire 1694 (Paris) – 1778 (Paris)
If you would have me love once more,
The blissful age of love restore;
From wine's free joys, and lovers' cares,
Relentless time, who no man spares,
Urges me quickly to retire,
And no more to such bliss aspire.
From such austerity exact,
Let's, if we can, some good extract;
Whose way of thinking with this age
Suits not, can ne'er be deemed a sage.
Let sprightly youth its follies gay,
Its follies amiable display;
Life to two moments is confined,
Let one to wisdom be consigned.
You sweet delusions of my mind,
Still to my ruling passion kind,
Which always brought a sure relief
To life's accurst companion, grief.
Will you forever from me fly,
And must I joyless, friendless die?
No mortal e'er resigns his breath
I see, without a double death;
Who loves, and is beloved no more,
His hapless fate may well deplore;
Life's loss may easily be borne,
Of love bereft man is forlorn.
'Twas thus those pleasures I lamented,
Which I so oft in youth repented;
My soul replete with soft desire,
Vainly regretted youthful fire.
But friendship then, celestial maid,
From heaven descended to my aid;
Less lively than the amorous flame,
Although her tenderness the same.
The charms of friendship I admired,
My soul was with new beauty fired;
I then made one in friendship's train,
But destitute of love, complain.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGGGHHIIJJAAKKLLMMNNOOPPQQ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 01011101 11110101 01011111 10110101 01111101 1110001 1111111 11110111 11111101 11011101 110100001 11110101 11110101 11010111 11110101 1110101 1110101 11010111 011111 110100111 11010101 11010111 11011101 11110011 11011101 111101010 111101010 110111010 100101010 11010101 110010111 110101001 1010001 011101010 111111010 1111011 1101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,274 |
Words | 231 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 38 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,020 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 229 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 559 Views
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"From Love to Friendship" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37859/from-love-to-friendship>.
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