Analysis of Earth's Secret

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



Not solitarily in fields we find
Earth's secret open, though one page is there;
Her plainest, such as children spell, and share
With bird and beast; raised letters for the blind.
Not where the troubled passions toss the mind,
In turbid cities, can the key be bare.
It hangs for those who hither thither fare,
Close interthreading nature with our kind.
They, hearing History speak, of what men were,
And have become, are wise. The gain is great
In vision and solidity; it lives.
Yet at a thought of life apart from her,
Solidity and vision lose their state,
For Earth, that gives the milk, the spirit gives.


Scheme ABBAABBACDECDE
Poetic Form
Metre 110111 1101011111 011110101 1101110101 1101010101 011010111 111111011 11101101 11010011110 0101110111 0100010011 1101110110 0100010111 1111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 601
Words 110
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 475
Words per stanza (avg) 108
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

33 sec read
120

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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