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

Ada Cambridge

Ada Cambridge, later known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian writer. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works. Many of her novels were serialised in Australian newspapers but never published in book form. While she was known to friends and family by her married name, Ada Cross, her newspaper readers knew her as A. C.. She later reverted to her maiden name, Ada Cambridge, and that is how she is known today.  more…

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