Analysis of To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance
Sir Walter Raleigh 1552 (Hayes Barton, East Budleigh, Devon) – 1618 (London)
Your dog is not a dog of grace;
He does not wag the tail or beg;
He bit Miss Dickson in the face;
He bit a Bailie in the leg.
What tragic choices such a dog
Presents to visitor or friend!
Outside there is the Glasgow fog;
Within, a hydrophobic end.
Yet some relief even terror brings,
For when our life is cold and gray
We waste our strength on little things,
And fret our puny souls away.
A snarl! A scruffle round the room!
A sense that Death is drawing near!
And human creatures reassume
The elemental robe of fear.
So when my colleague makes his moan
Of careless cooks, and warts, and debt,
-- Enlarge his views, restore his tone,
And introduce him to your Pet!
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG HIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11110111 11110111 11110001 11010001 11010101 10110011 1111011 01011 110110101 111011101 111011101 011010101 0101101 01111101 01010001 0010111 11110111 11010101 01110111 0011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 722 |
Words | 132 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 109 Views
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"To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35464/to-a-lady-with-an-unruly-and-ill-mannered-dog-who-bit-several-persons-of-importance>.
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