Analysis of Variations Upon Love



I
For God's sake, let me love you, and give over
These tedious protestations of a lover;
We're of one mind to love, and there's no let:
Remember that, and all the rest forget.
And let's be happy, mistress, while we may,
Ere yet to-morrow shall be called to-day.
To-morrow may be heedless, idle-hearted:
One night's enough for love to have met and parted.
Then be it now, and I'll not say that I
In many several deaths for you would die;
And I'll not ask you to declare that you
Will longer love than women mostly do.
Leave words to them whom words, not doings, move,
And let our silence answer for our love.
II
Oh, woman! I am jealous of the eyes
That look upon you; all my looks are spies
That do but lurk and follow you about,
Restless to find some guilty secret out.
I am unhappy if I see you not,
Unhappy if I see you; tell me what
That smile betokens? what close thing is hid
Beneath the half-way lifting of a lid?
Who is it, tell me, I so dread to meet,
Just as we turn the corner of the street?
Daily I search your baffling eyes to see
Who knows what new admitted company?
And, sick with dread to find the thing I seek,
I tremble at the name you do not speak.
III
I know your lips are bought like any fruit;
I know your love, and of your love the root;
I know your kisses toll for love that dies
In kissing, to be buried in your eyes;
I know I am degraded for your sake,
And that my shame will not so much as make
Your glory, or be reckoned in the debt
Of memories you are mindful to forget.
All this I know, and, knowing it, I come
Delighted to my daily martyrdom;
And, rich in love beyond the common store,
Become for you a beggar, to implore
The broken crumbs that from your table fall,
Freely, in your indifference, on all.
IV
I loved her; and you say she loved me not.
Well, if I loved her? And if she forgot,
Well, I have not forgotten even yet:
Time, and spent tears, may teach me to forget.
And so she loves another, and did then
When she was heaven and earth to me, and when,
Truly, she made me happy. It may be:
I only know how good she was to me.
Friend, to have loved, to have been made happy thus,
What better fate has life in store for us,
The dream of life from which we have to wake,
Happier, why not? why not for a dream's sake?
To have been loved is well, and well enough
For any man: but 'tis enough to love.


Scheme ABBCCDDEEAAFFGHAIIJJKLMMNNOOPPAQQIIRRCCSSTTUUGKKCCVVOOWWRRXH
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1 11111110110 1100101010 1111110111 0101010101 0111010111 1111011111 1101111010 110111111010 1111011111 0101011111 0111110111 1101110101 1111111101 011010101101 1 1101110101 1101111111 1111010101 1011110101 1101011111 0101111111 11111111 0101110101 1111111111 1111010101 10111100111 1111010100 0111110111 1101011111 1 1111111101 1111011101 1111011111 0101110011 1111010111 0111111111 1101110001 11001110101 1111010111 0101110100 0101010101 0111010101 0101111101 1001010011 1 1100111111 1111001101 1111010101 1011111101 0111010011 11110011101 1011110111 1101111111 11111111101 1101110111 0111111111 10011111011 1111110101 1101110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,283
Words 472
Sentences 23
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 60
Lines Amount 60
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,766
Words per stanza (avg) 470
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:24 min read
116

Arthur Symons

Arthur William Symons, was a British poet, critic and magazine editor. more…

All Arthur Symons poems | Arthur Symons Books

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