Analysis of Modern Love III: This Was the Woman
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
This was the woman; what now of the man?
But pass him. If he comes beneath a heel,
He shall be crushed until he cannot feel,
Or, being callous, haply till he can.
But he is nothing:--nothing? Only mark
The rich light striking out from her on him!
Ha! what a sense it is when her eyes swim
Across the man she singles, leaving dark
All else! Lord God, who mad'st the thing so fair,
See that I am drawn to her even now!
It cannot be such harm on her cool brow
To put a kiss? Yet if I meet him there!
But she is mine! Ah, no! I know too well
I claim a star whose light is overcast:
I claim a phantom-woman in the Past.
The hour has struck, though I heard not the bell!
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFEGHHG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011101 1111110101 1111011101 110101111 1111010101 0111011011 1101111011 0101110101 11111110111 1111110101 1101111011 1101111111 1111111111 110111110 1101010001 01011111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 672 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 497 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 138 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 114 Views
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"Modern Love III: This Was the Woman" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15505/modern-love-iii%3A-this-was-the-woman>.
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