Analysis of To Mr. Henry Lawes, Who Had Then Newly Set a Song of Mine
Edmund Waller 1606 (Coleshill) – 1687
Verse makes heroic virtue live;
But you can life to verses give.
As, when in open air we blow,
The breath, though strained, sounds flat and low;
But if a trumpet take the blast,
It lifts it high, and makes it last:
So in your airs and our numbers dressed,
Make a shrill sally from the breast
Of nymphs, who, singing what we penned,
Our passions to themselves commend;
While love, victorious with thy art,
Governs at once their voice and heart.
You, by the help of tune and time,
Can make that song which was but rhyme.
Noy pleading, no man doubts the cause;
Or questions verses set by Lawes.
As a Church window, thick with paint,
Lets in a light but dim and faint,
So others, with division, hide
The light of sense, the poet's pride;
But you alone may truly boast
That not a syllable is lost:
The writer's and the setter's skill
At once the ravished ears do fill.
Let those which only warble long,
And gargle in their throats a song,
Content themselves with
ut, re, mi
:
Let words, and sense, be set by thee.
Scheme | XXAABBCCDDEE FFXX GGHHXXIIJJXK K |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (30%) |
Metre | 11010101 11111101 11010111 01111101 11010101 11110111 1011010101 10110101 11110111 101010101 110100111 10111101 11011101 11111111 11011101 11010111 10110111 10011101 11010101 01110101 11011101 11010011 0100011 1101111 11110101 0101101 10011 111 1 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 989 |
Words | 192 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 4, 14 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 258 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 77 Views
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"To Mr. Henry Lawes, Who Had Then Newly Set a Song of Mine" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9331/to-mr.-henry-lawes%2C-who-had-then-newly-set-a-song-of-mine>.
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