Analysis of Modern Love XIV: What Soul Would Bargain
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
What soul would bargain for a cure that brings
Contempt the nobler agony to kill?
Rather let me bear on the bitter ill,
And strike this rusty bosom with new stings!
It seems there is another veering fit
Since on a gold-haired lady's eyeballs pure,
I looked with little prospect of a cure,
The while her mouth's red bow loosed shafts of wit.
Just heaven! can it be true that jealousy
Has decked the woman thus? and does her head
Swim somewhat for possessions forfeited?
Madam, you teach me many things that be.
I open an old book, and there I find
That "Women still may love whom they deceive."
Such love I prize not, madam: by your leave,
The game you play at is not to my mind.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFGEHIIH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111 0101010011 1011110101 0111010111 1111010101 110111011 1111010101 0101111111 11011111100 1101010101 1111010100 1011110111 1101110111 1101111101 1111110111 0111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 671 |
Words | 132 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 528 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 129 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 68 Views
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"Modern Love XIV: What Soul Would Bargain" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15517/modern-love-xiv%3A-what-soul-would-bargain>.
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