Analysis of On the Burning of Lord Mansfield's Library

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



On the Burning of Lord Mansfield's Library, Together with his MSS. by the Mob, in the Month of June 1780.

So then - the Vandals of our isle,
Sworn foes to sense and law,
Have burnt to dust a nobler pile
Than ever Roman saw!

And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift,
And many a treasure more,
The well-judged purchase and the gift
That graced his lettered store.

Their
pages mangled, burnt, and torn,
The loss was
his alone;

But ages yet to come shall mourn
The burning of
his own.


Scheme X ABAB CDCD XEXF EXF
Poetic Form
Metre 10101111001011110100111 110101101 111101 11110101 110101 010110101 0100101 01110001 111101 1 1010101 011 101 11011111 0101 11
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 473
Words 93
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4, 3
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 73
Words per stanza (avg) 18
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
433

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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