Analysis of Modern Love XLVII: We Saw the Swallows

George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)



We saw the swallows gathering in the sky,
And in the osier-isle we heard them noise.
We had not to look back on summer joys,
Or forward to a summer of bright dye:
But in the largeness of the evening earth
Our spirits grew as we went side by side.
The hour became her husband and my bride.
Love that had robbed us so, thus blessed our dearth!
The pilgrims of the year waxed very loud
In multitudinous chatterings, as the flood
Full brown came from the West, and like pale blood
Expanded to the upper crimson cloud.
Love that had robbed us of immortal things,
This little moment mercifully gave,
Where I have seen across the twilight wave
The swan sail with her young beneath her wings.


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFEGHHG
Poetic Form
Metre 11010100001 000111111 1111111101 1101010111 1001010101 10101111111 01001010011 11111111101 0101011101 011101 1111010111 0101010101 1111110101 1101010001 111101011 0111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 692
Words 130
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 542
Words per stanza (avg) 128
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
60

George Meredith

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. more…

All George Meredith poems | George Meredith Books

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