Analysis of Time to Be Wise
Walter Savage Landor 1775 (Warwick) – 1864
YES; I write verses now and then,
But blunt and flaccid is my pen,
No longer talk’d of by young men
As rather clever;
In the last quarter are my eyes,
You see it by their form and size;
Is it not time then to be wise?
Or now or never.
Fairest that ever sprang from Eve!
While Time allows the short reprieve,
Just look at me! would you believe
’T was once a lover?
I cannot clear the five-bar gate;
But, trying first its timber’s state,
Climb stiffly up, take breath, and wait
To trundle over.
Through gallopade I cannot swing
The entangling blooms of Beauty’s spring:
I cannot say the tender thing,
Be ’t true or false,
And am beginning to opine
Those girls are only half divine
Whose waists yon wicked boys entwine
In giddy waltz.
I fear that arm above that shoulder;
I wish them wiser, graver, older,
Sedater, and no harm if colder,
And panting less.
Ah! people were not half so wild
In former days, when, starchly mild,
Upon her high-heel’d Essex smil’d
The brave Queen Bess.
Scheme | AAABCCCB DDDBEEEB FFFXGGGX BBBHIIEH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 11010111 11011111 11010 00110111 11111101 11111111 11110 10110111 11010101 11111101 111010 11010111 11011101 11011101 11010 111101 00101111 11010101 11111 01010101 11110101 11110101 0101 111101110 111101010 1011110 0101 11001111 0101111 01011101 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 975 |
Words | 185 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 87 Views
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"Time to Be Wise" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38449/time-to-be-wise>.
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