Analysis of Song (Untitled #12)

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



Should thy love die;
O bury it not under ice-blue eyes!
And lips that deny,
With a scornful surprise,
The life it once lived in thy breast when it wore no disguise.

Should thy love die;
O bury it where the sweet wild-flowers blow!
And breezes go by,
With no whisper of woe;
And strange feet cannot guess of the anguish that slumbers below.

Should thy love die;
O wander once more to the haunt of the bee!
Where the foliaged sky
Is most sacred to see,
And thy being first felt its wild birth like a wind-wakened tree.

Should thy love die;
O dissemble it! smile! let the rose hide the thorn!
While the lark sings on high,
And no thing looks forlorn,
Bury it, bury it, bury it where it was born.


Scheme Ababb Acacc Adadd Aeaee
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1111 1101110111 01101 101001 01111011111101 1111 11011011101 01011 111011 01110110101101 1111 11011101101 1011 111011 01101111110111 1111 101011101101 101111 011101 1011011011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 700
Words 136
Sentences 11
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 133
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
37

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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