Analysis of The Poet's New-Year's Gift. To Mrs. (Afterwards Lady) Throckmorton

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



Maria! I have every good
For thee wished many a time,
Both sad and in a cheerful mood,
But never yet in rhyme.

To wish thee fairer is no need,
More prudent, or more sprightly,
Or more ingenuous, or more freed
From temper-flaws unsightly.

What favour then not yet possessed
Can I for thee require,
In wedded love already blessed,
To thy whole heart's desire?

None here is happy but in part;
Full bliss is bliss divine;
There dwells some wish in every heart,
And doubtless one in thine.

That wish, on some fair future day
Which Fate shall brightly gild,
('Tis blameless, be it what it may,)
I wish it all fulfilled.


Scheme XAXA BCBC DEDE FGFG HIHI
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 010111001 1111001 11000101 110101 11110111 1101110 110100111 1101010 1111101 111110 01010101 1111010 11110101 111101 111101001 010101 11111101 111101 11011111 111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 604
Words 116
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 95
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
58

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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