Analysis of A Woman's Mood
Jenning Carmichael 1867 (Ballarat, Victoria) – 1904 (London)
I THINK to-night I could bear it all,
Even the arrow that cleft the core,—
Could I wait again for your swift footfall,
And your sunny face coming in at the door.
With the old frank look and the gay young smile,
And the ring of the words you used to say;
I could almost deem the pain worth while,
To greet you again in the olden way!
But you stand without in the dark and cold,
And I may not open the long closed door,
Nor call thro’ the night, with the love of old,—
“Come into the warmth, as in nights of yore!”
I kneel alone in the red fire-glow,
And hear the wings of the wind sweep by;
You are out afar in the night, I know,
And the sough of the wind is like a cry.
You are out afar—and I wait within,
A grave-eyed woman whose pulse is slow;
The flames round the red coals softly spin,
And the lonely room’s in a rosy glow.
The firelight falls on your vacant chair,
And the soft brown rug where you used to stand;
Dear, never again shall I see you there,
Nor lift my head for your seeking hand.
Yet sometimes still, and in spite of all,
I wistful look at the fastened door,
And wait again for the swift footfall,
And the gay young voice as in hours of yore.
It still seems strange to be here alone,
With the rising sob of the wind without;
The sound takes a deep, insisting tone,
Where the trees are swinging their arms about.
Its moaning reaches the sheltered room,
And thrills my heart with a sense of pain;
I walk to the window, and pierce the gloom,
With a yearning look that is all in vain.
You are out in a night of depths that hold
No promise of dawning for you and me,
And only a ghost from the life of old
Has come from the world of memory!
You are out evermore! God wills it so!
But ah! my spirit is yearning yet!
As I kneel alone by the red fire-glow,
My eyes grow dim with the old regret.
O when shall the aching throb grow still,
The warm love-life turn cold at the core!
Must I be watching, against my will,
For your banished face in the opening door?
It may be, dear, when the sequel’s told
Of the story, read to its bitter close;
When the inner meanings of life unfold,
And the under-side of our being shows—
It may be then, in that truer light,
When all our knowledge has larger grown,
I may understand why you stray to-night,
And I am left, with the past, alone.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEBEBFGFG HFHFIJIJ ABABKLKL MNMNEOEO FPFPQBQB EXEXRKRK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111111 100101101 111011111 01101100101 1011100111 0011011111 11110111 1110100101 1110100101 0111100111 1110110111 1010110111 1101001101 010110111 1110100111 0011011101 1110101101 011101111 011011101 0010100101 01111101 0011111111 1100111111 111111101 101100111 110110101 01011011 00111101011 111111101 1010110101 011010101 1011101101 110100101 011110111 1110100101 1010111101 1110011111 1101101101 0100110111 111011100 111101111 111101101 11101101101 111110101 111010111 011111101 111100111 11101001001 111110101 1010111101 1010101101 00101110101 111101101 1110101101 110111111 011110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,346 |
Words | 460 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 291 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 76 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:18 min read
- 40 Views
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"A Woman's Mood" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21327/a-woman%27s-mood>.
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