Analysis of To Have Taken The Trouble
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
I'm practically broke and homeless.
This fatal city, Antioch,
has devoured all my money:
this fatal city with its extravagant life.
But I'm young and extremely healthy.
Prodigious master of Greek,
I know Aristotle and Plato through and through,
poets, orators, or anyone else you could mention.
I have some idea about military matters
and friends among the senior mercenaries.
I also have a foot in the administrative world;
I spent six months in Alexandria last year:
I know (and this is useful) something about what goes on there-
the scheming of Kakergetis, his dirty deals, and the rest of it.
So I consider myself completely qualified
to serve this country,
my beloved fatherland, Syria.
Whatever job they give me,
I'll try to be useful to the country. That's what I intend.
But if they frustrate me with their manoeuvres-
we know them, those smart operators: no need to say more here-
if they frustrate me, it's not my fault.
I'll approach Zabinas first,
and if that idiot doesn't appreciate me,
I'll go to his rival, Grypos.
And if that imbecile doesn't appoint me,
I'll go straight to Hyrkanos.
One of the three will want me anyway.
And my conscience is quiet
about my not caring which one I choose:
the three of them are equally bad for Syria.
But, a ruined man, it's not my fault.
I'm only trying, poor devil, to make ends meet.
The almighty gods ought to have taken the trouble
to create a fourth, a decent man.
I would gladly have gone along with him.
Scheme | AXBX BXXXXXXXXX XBC BXAXD XBABA X XXC DXXXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001010 1101010 10101110 110101101001 111001010 0101011 11100010101 1010011011110 1110100110010 0101010100 1101010001001 11110010011 110111010011111 01011110100111 11010101010 11110 10110100 101111 111110101011101 11111111 11111100111111 11111111 10111 011100100101 1111101 01110010011 11111 110111110 0110110 0111101111 0111110011100 101011111 110101101111 0010111110010 101010101 1110110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,437 |
Words | 262 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 10, 3, 5, 5, 1, 3, 5 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 143 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 123 Views
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"To Have Taken The Trouble" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7269/to-have-taken-the-trouble>.
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