Analysis of Heart’s Chill Between
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)
I did not chide him, though I knew
That he was false to me.
Chide the exhaling of the dew,
The ebbing of the sea,
The fading of a rosy hue,—
But not inconstancy.
Why strive for love when love is o'er?
Why bind a restive heart?—
He never knew the pain I bore
In saying: 'We must part;
Let us be friends and nothing more.'
—Oh, woman's shallow art!
But it is over, it is done,—
I hardly heed it now;
So many weary years have run
Since then, I think not how
Things might have been,—but greet each one
With an unruffled brow.
What time I am where others be,
My heart seems very calm—
Stone calm; but if all go from me,
There comes a vague alarm,
A shrinking in the memory
From some forgotten harm.
And often through the long, long night,
Waking when none are near,
I feel my heart beat fast with fright,
Yet know not what I fear.
Oh how I long to see the light,
And the sweet birds to hear!
To have the sun upon my face,
To look up through the trees,
To walk forth in the open space
And listen to the breeze,—
And not to dream the burial-place
Is clogging my weak knees.
Sometimes I can nor weep nor pray,
But am half stupefied:
And then all those who see me say
Mine eyes are opened wide
And that my wits seem gone away—
Ah, would that I had died!
Would I could die and be at peace,
Or living could forget!
My grief nor grows nor doth decrease,
But ever is:—and yet
Methinks, now, that all this shall cease
Before the sun shall set.
Scheme | ABABAB XCDCDC EFEFEF BXBGBG HIHIHX JKJKJK LCLMLM NONONO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 111111 101101 010101 01010101 110100 111111110 110101 11010111 010111 11110101 110101 11110111 110111 11010111 111111 11111111 110101 11111101 111101 11111111 110101 01000100 110101 01010111 101111 11111111 111111 11111101 001111 11010111 111101 11100101 010101 011101001 110111 01111111 1111 01111111 111101 01111101 111111 11110111 110101 11111101 110101 1111111 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,412 |
Words | 296 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 23, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 141 Views
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"Heart’s Chill Between" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5804/heart%E2%80%99s-chill-between>.
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