Analysis of Modern Love XXIX: Am I Failing

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



Am I failing ? For no longer can I cast
A glory round about this head of gold.
Glory she wears, but springing from the mould;
Not like the consecration of the Past!
Is my soul beggared? Something more than earth
I cry for still: I cannot be at peace
In having Love upon a' mortal lease.
I cannot take the woman at her worth!
Where is the ancient wealth wherewith I clothed
Our human nakedness, and could endow
With spiritual splendour a white brow
That else had grinned at me the fact I loathed ?
A kiss is but a kiss now! and no wave
Of a great flood that whirls me to the sea.
But, as you will! we'll sit contentedly,
And eat our pot of honey on the grave.


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFEGHHG
Poetic Form
Metre 11101110111 0101011111 1011110101 110010101 111110111 1111110111 0101010101 1101010101 110101111 101010101 110001011 1111110111 0111011011 1011111101 1111110100 01101110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 666
Words 132
Sentences 12
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 508
Words per stanza (avg) 132
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
104

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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