Analysis of The True Born Englishman (excerpt)

Daniel Defoe 1731 (London) – 1731 (London)



...
     Thus from a mixture of all kinds began,
  That het'rogeneous thing, an Englishman:
  In eager rapes, and furious lust begot,
  Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot.
  Whose gend'ring off-spring quickly learn'd to bow,
  And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
  From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
  With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
  In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
  Infus'd betwixt a Saxon and a Dane.
  While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
  Receiv'd all nations with promiscuous lust.
  This nauseous brood directly did contain
  The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.

Which medly canton'd in a heptarchy,
  A rhapsody of nations to supply,
  Among themselves maintain'd eternal wars,
  And still the ladies lov'd the conquerors.

The western Angles all the rest subdu'd;
  A bloody nation, barbarous and rude:
  Who by the tenure of the sword possest
  One part of Britain, and subdu'd the rest
  And as great things denominate the small,
  The conqu'ring part gave title to the whole.
  The Scot, Pict, Britain, Roman, Dane, submit,
  And with the English-Saxon all unite:
  And these the mixture have so close pursu'd,
  The very name and memory's subdu'd:
  No Roman now, no Britain does remain;
  Wales strove to separate, but strove in vain:
  The silent nations undistinguish'd fall,
  And Englishman's the common name for all.
  Fate jumbled them together, God knows how;
  What e'er they were they're true-born English now.

The wonder which remains is at our pride,
  To value that which all wise men deride.
  For Englishmen to boast of generation,
  Cancels their knowledge, and lampoons the nation.
  A true-born Englishman's a contradiction,
  In speech an irony, in fact a fiction.
  A banter made to be a test of fools,
  Which those that use it justly ridicules.
  A metaphor invented to express
  A man a-kin to all the universe.

For as the Scots, as learned men ha' said,
  Throughout the world their wand'ring seed ha' spread;
  So open-handed England, 'tis believ'd,
  Has all the gleanings of the world receiv'd.

Some think of England 'twas our Saviour meant,
  The Gospel should to all the world be sent:
  Since, when the blessed sound did hither reach,
  They to all nations might be said to preach.

'Tis well that virtue gives nobility,
  How shall we else the want of birth and blood supply?
  Since scarce one family is left alive,
  Which does not from some foreigner derive.


Scheme ABCXDDEEAFGGFB HIXX JJCXKXXXJJFFKKDD LLBBBBMMXX NNOO PPHH XIQQ
Poetic Form
Metre 1 1101011101 1111100 01010100101 0101010001 111110111 0111010101 110111111 1101110111 0111110101 0101010001 1111011101 0111011001 1101010101 010101110 111001 0100110101 0101010101 0101010100 0101010101 0101010001 110101011 1111000101 011101001 011110101 0111010101 010101011 0101011101 01010101 1101110101 111101101 010100101 01010111 1101010111 11010111101 01010111101 1101111101 110111010 1011001010 01110010 01110001010 0101110111 111111010 0100010101 010111010 110111111 0101111111 1101010101 110110101 1111011011 0101110111 110111101 1111011111 1111010100 111101110101 1111001101 1111110001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,461
Words 402
Sentences 20
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 15, 4, 16, 10, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 57
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 266
Words per stanza (avg) 57
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:07 min read
47

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe, born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy, now most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe. more…

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