Analysis of Virginity
My mother she had children five and four are dead and gone;
While I, least worthy to survive, persist in living on.
She looks at me, I must confess, sometimes with spite and bitterness.
My mother is three-score and ten, while I am forty-three,
You don't know how it hurts me when we go somewhere to tea,
And people tell her on the sly we look like sisters, she and I.
It hurts to see her secret glee; but most, because it's true.
Sometimes I think she thinks that she looks younger of the two.
Oh as I gently take her arm, how I would love to do her harm!
For ever since I cam from school she put it in my head
I was a weakling and a fool, a "born old maid" she said.
"You'll always stay at home," sighed she, "and keep your Mother company."
Oh pity is a bitter brew; I've drunk it to the lees;
For there is little else to do but do my best to please:
My life has been so little worth I curse the hour she gave me birth.
I curse the hour she gave me breath, who never wished me wife;
My happiest day will be the death of her who gave me life;
I hate her for the life she gave: I hope to dance upon her grave.
She wearing roses in her hat; I wince to hear her say:
"Poor Alice this, poor Alice that," she drains my joy away.
It seems to brace her up that she can pity, pity, pity me.
You'll see us walking in the street, with careful step and slow;
And people often say: "How sweet!" as arm in arm we go.
Like chums we never are apart - yet oh the hatred in my heart!
My chest is weak, and I might be (O God!) the first to go.
For her what triumph that would be - she thinks of it, I know.
To outlive all her kith and kin - how she would glow beneath her skin!
She says she will not make her Will, until she takes to bed;
She little thinks if thoughts could kill, to-morrow she'd be dead. . . .
"Please come to breakfast, Mother dear; Your coffee will be cold I fear."
Scheme | XXX AAX BBX CCA DDX EEX FFA GGX GGX CC X |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101011101 11110101010101 1111110101110100 11011101111101 1111111111111 0101010111110101 11110101110111 01111111110101 1111010111111101 11011111111011 11010001011111 111111101110100 11010101111101 11110111111111 11111101110101111 110101111110111 110011101101111 1101011111110101 11010001111101 11011101111101 1111011111010101 11110001110101 01010111110111 1111010111010011 11110111110111 10110111111111 111010111110101 11111101011111 11011111110111 1111010111011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,846 |
Words | 391 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 127 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:57 min read
- 72 Views
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"Virginity" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32735/virginity>.
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