Analysis of Modern Love XXXII: Full Faith I Have

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



Full faith I have she holds that rarest gift
To beauty, Common Sense. To see her lie
With her fair visage an inverted sky
Bloom-covered, while the underlids uplift,
Would almost wreck the faith; but when her mouth
(Can it kiss sweetly? sweetly!) would address
The inner me that thirsts for her no less,
And has so long been languishing in drouth,
I feel that I am matched; that I am man!
One restless corner of my heart or head,
That holds a dying something never dead,
Still frets, though Nature giveth all she can.
It means, that woman is not, I opine,
Her sex's antidote. Who seeks the asp
For serpent's bites? 'Twould calm me could I clasp
Shrieking Bacchantes with their souls of wine!


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFEGHHG
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111101 1101011101 1011010101 11010110 111011101 111101011 0101111011 0111110001 1111111111 1101011111 1101010101 1111010111 1111011101 01101101 1101111111 10111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 698
Words 129
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 538
Words per stanza (avg) 126
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
88

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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