Analysis of Contentment
Ada Cambridge 1844 (St Germans, Norfolk) – 1926 (Melbourne)
Is it a virtue, as the sages say,
The 'trivial round and common task' to ply,
And for no wider walk of life to sigh
Than we were born to; sweetly, day by day,
Our meed of lowly reverence to pay
Our high-placed 'betters'; never to defy
The powers that be; never to kick or cry,
Or think, or question - simply to obey?
Then vice be with us, although blood be shed.
No pact with powers partizan and blind;
No peace with Custom that makes right of wrong.
We shall content us when the starved are fed,
When men and brothers are agreed and kind,
And there is fair play between weak and strong.
Scheme | ABBAABBA CDECDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Petrarchan sonnet |
Metre | 1101010101 01001010111 0111011111 1101110111 10111010011 10111010101 01011101111 1111010101 111111111 11110101 1111011111 1110110111 1101010101 0111101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 582 |
Words | 117 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 225 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 67 Views
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"Contentment" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/49/contentment>.
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