Analysis of On the Friendship Betwixt Two Ladies
Edmund Waller 1606 (Coleshill) – 1687
Tell me, lovely, loving pair!
Why so kind, and so severe?
Why so careless of our care,
Only to yourselves so dear?
By this cunning change of hearts,
You the power of love control;
While the boy's eluded darts
Can arrive at neither soul.
For in vain to either breast
Still beguiled love does come,
Where he finds a foreign guest,
Neither of your hearts at home.
Debtors thus with like design,
When they never mean to pay,
That they may the law decline,
To some friend make all away.
Not the silver doves that fly,
Yoked in Cytherea's car;
Not the wings that lift so high,
And convey her son so far;
Are so lovely, sweet, and fair,
Or do more ennoble love;
Are so choicely matched a pair,
Or with more consent do move.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEX FGFG HIHI AXAX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 1110101 1110101 11101101 1010111 1110111 10101101 1010101 1011101 1011101 101111 1110101 1011111 1011101 1110111 1110101 1111101 1010111 1011 1011111 0010111 1110101 1110101 111101 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 706 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 56 Views
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"On the Friendship Betwixt Two Ladies" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9321/on-the-friendship-betwixt-two-ladies>.
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