Analysis of To Delia: On Her Endeavouring To Conceal Her Grief At Parting
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
Ah! wherefore should my weeping maid suppress
Those gentle signs of undissembled woe?
When from soft love proceeds the deep distress,
Ah, why forbid the willing tears to flow?
Since for my sake each dear translucent drop
Breaks forth, best witness of thy truth sincere,
My lips should drink the precious mixture up,
And, ere it falls, receive the trembling tear.
Trust me, these symptoms of thy faithful heart,
In absence shall my dearest hope sustain;
Delia! since such thy sorrow that we part,
Such when we meet thy joy shall be again.
Hard is that heart, and unsubdued by love,
That feels no pain, nor ever heaves a sigh;
Such hearts the fiercest passions only prove,
Or freeze in cold insensibility.
Oh! then indulge thy grief, nor fear to tell
The gentle source from whence thy sorrows flow,
Nor think it weakness when we love to feel,
Nor think it weakness what we feel to show.
Scheme | ABAB XXXX CXCX XXXC XBXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (40%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111110101 1101111 1111010101 1101010111 1111110101 1111011101 1111010101 01110101001 1111011101 0101110101 1011110111 1111111101 11110111 1111110101 1101010101 11011 1101111111 0101111101 1111011111 1111011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 873 |
Words | 159 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 79 Views
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"To Delia: On Her Endeavouring To Conceal Her Grief At Parting" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40211/to-delia%3A-on-her-endeavouring-to-conceal-her-grief-at-parting>.
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