Analysis of To a Millionaire

Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)



The world in gloom and splendour passes by,
  And thou in the midst of it with brows that gleam,
  A creature of that old distorted dream
  That makes the sound of life an evil cry.
  Good men perform just deeds, and brave men die,
  And win not honour such as gold can give,
  While the vain multitudes plod on, and live,
  And serve the curse that pins them down: But I
  Think only of the unnumbered broken hearts,
  The hunger and the mortal strife for bread,
  Old age and youth alike mistaught, misfed,
  By want and rags and homelessness made vile,
  The griefs and hates, and all the meaner parts
  That balance thy one grim misgotten pile.


Scheme ABBAACDAEFFGEG
Poetic Form
Metre 010101101 01001111111 0101110101 1101111101 1101110111 011111111 101101101 0101111111 110101101 0100010111 11010111 1101010011 0101010101 11011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 656
Words 119
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 490
Words per stanza (avg) 117
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 30, 2023

35 sec read
105

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman FRSC was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English." Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. more…

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