A Certain People
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
As Puritans they prominently wax,
And none more kindly gives and takes hard knocks.
Strong psalmic chanting, like to nasal cocks,
They join to thunderings of their hearty thwacks.
But naughtiness, with hoggery, not lacks
When Peace another door in them unlocks,
Where conscience shows the eyeing of an ox
Grown dully apprehensive of an Axe.
Graceless they are when gone to frivolousness,
Fearing the God they flout, the God they glut.
They need their pious exercises less
Than schooling in the Pleasures: fair belief
That these are devilish only to their thief,
Charged with an Axe nigh on the occiput.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 72 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAAABAACDEEC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 597 |
Words | 103 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"A Certain People" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/15414/a-certain-people>.
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