Analysis of King Cophetua The First
Coventry Patmore 1823 (Woodford, London) – 1896 (Lymington)
Said Jove within himself one day,
‘I'll make me a mistress out of clay!
These ninefold spheres of chiming quires,
Though little things and therefore sweet,
Too Godlike are for my desires:
My pleasure still is incomplete.
The gust of love is mystery,
Which poorly yet the heavens supply.
Now where may God for mystery seek
Save in the earthly, small, and weak?
My work, then, let me crown and end
With what I ne'er shall comprehend!’
And so the unfathomable Need,
Hell's mock, Heaven's pity, was decreed.
And, with perversity immense
As all his other affluence,
Jove left his wondering Court behind
And Juno's almost equal mind,
On low and little Earth to seek
That vessel infinitely weak,
(The abler for the infinite honour
He hugely long'd to put upon her,)
And, in a melancholy grove,
Found sighing his predestined Love,
A pretty, foolish, pensive maid,
The least of heaven-related things,
Of every boy and beast afraid,
But not of him, the King of Kings.
He look'd so measurelessly mild,
And so he flatter'd her, poor child,
By lifting with respect her hand
To his salute benign and grand,
That, when he spoke, and begged to be
Instructed in her wishes, she,
Having a modest minute tarried,
Lisp'd, ‘I should like, Sire, to be married.’
But, when he smiling ask'd, ‘Whom to?’
She blush'd and said, she scarcely knew.
Then Jove named Shepherds, Lords, and Kings
To her free choice; for all such things
Were his and his to give; but these
She shook her curls at. ‘Hard to please
Is my small Cousin, but my nod
Shall call from heaven some splendid God—’
‘Ah, Maker mine, no God will do
That's not as great a God as you!’
Thereat Jove laugh'd: ‘As least of things
Alone can sate the King of Kings,
So the least thing, it seems, that I
Alone of Gods can satisfy!’
And, fading in her flushing arms,
He blazed for ever from her charms.
Thenceforth the maiden sang and shone,
Admired by all and woo'd by none,
For, though she said she was a sinner,
'Twas clear to all that Jove was in her,
And, but for that deep pagan night,
She would have been a Carmelite.
Scheme | AABCBCDEFFGGHHBBIIFFDJXXKBKBLLMMDDAHNNBBBBOO NNBBEEBBXXJJPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 111010111 111111 1101011 11111010 11011001 01111100 110101001 111111001 10010101 11111101 1111101 010010001 111010101 01010001 11110100 111100101 0101101 11010111 11010001 0100101001 110111010 0001001 1101101 01010101 011100101 110010101 11110111 11111 01110011 11010101 11010101 11110111 01000101 10010101 1111101110 11110111 11011101 11110101 10111111 01011111 11011111 11110111 111101101 11011111 11110111 1111111 01110111 10111111 0111110 01000101 11110101 1010101 010110111 111111010 111111100 01111101 1111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,031 |
Words | 381 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 44, 14 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 787 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 187 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:58 min read
- 32 Views
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"King Cophetua The First" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7342/king-cophetua-the-first>.
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