Analysis of The Drunkard
Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)
Disease was lurking in the cup!
Disastrous folly mantling there!
For promised joys he quaffed it up—
And his were ruin and despair!
Yes—so deceived he tasted first,
And fashion the delusion nurst,
Till with the texture of his life
It wove a warp of madness, agony, and strife.
The festive bowl!—to that he owes
Those drops of shame which now bedew
His burning brows—the hell of woes
His haggard spirit rushing through!
Young, innocent, he took the road
That leads to honor’s bright abode;
But joined, unwarned, upon the way
A bacchanalian troop—there stationed to betray.
Oh, could he but recall the past!
Oh, could he be what he had been!
The pearls of mental promise, cast
Away for riot’s joys obscene,
Could he reclaim! and knew his soul
To execrate, as now, the bowl—
That voice which sang to his brave youth
High hopes, and glorious aims, were still a voice of truth.
Oh what like self contempt can blast
The lofty hope, the wish refined?
In bitter mockery, at the “last
Infirmity of noble mind”
It laughs—a laugh in which despair
And wild defiance mingled are:
And not even madness can exempt
The votary of the bowl from grinning self-contempt.
Yet, could he but forbear to raise
The hellward-hastening draught again,
Time yet might quench the lurid blaze,
The fiery serpent in his brain!
Friendship might take his hand once more,
Fond love caress him as before;
And gentle peace, and comfort mild,
Smile on his future years, as on his youth they smiled.
Scheme | ABABCCDD ECEXFFGG HXHXIIJJ HKHKBXLL MXMXNNOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 01110001 0101011 11011111 01010001 11011101 01000101 11010111 110111010001 01011111 1111111 11010111 11010101 11001101 11110101 1110101 011110101 1111101 11111111 01110101 01110101 11010111 111101 11111111 1101001010111 11110111 01010101 010100101 01001101 11010101 01010101 011010101 01101110101 1111111 01100101 11110101 010010011 10111111 11011101 01010101 111101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,451 |
Words | 260 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 230 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 48 Views
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"The Drunkard" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5187/the-drunkard>.
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