Analysis of Lines Written During A Period Of Insanity
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Hatred and vengence—my eternal portion
Scarce can endure delay of execution—
Wait with impatient readiness to seize my
Soul in a moment.
Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was,
Who for a few pence sold his holy Master!
Twice betrayed, Jesus me, the last delinquent,
Deems the profanest.
Man disavows, and Deity disowns me:
Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;
Therefore Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all
Bolted against me.
Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers;
Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors,
I'm called, if vanquished, to receive a sentence
Worse than Abiram's.
Him the vindictive rod of angry Justice
Sent quick and howling to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgment, in a fleshy tomb am
Buried above ground.
| Scheme | AAXB CDBB EDXE FFXC XXXX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Tetractys (25%) |
| Metre | 1001101010 1101011010 11010100111 10010 10110101111 11011111010 10110101010 101 11010011 11011100010 1110101011 10011 11010101010 101100101010 11110101010 111 10010111010 1101010101 11110001011 10011 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 747 |
| Words | 126 |
| Sentences | 8 |
| Stanzas | 5 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 20 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 120 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 01, 2023
- 38 sec read
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"Lines Written During A Period Of Insanity" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39907/lines-written-during-a-period-of-insanity>.
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