Analysis of Pêcheresse
Charlotte Mary Mew 1869 (Bloomsbury, London) – 1928 (London)
Down the long quay the slow boats glide,
While here and there a house looms white
Against the gloom of the waterside,
And some high window throws a light
As they sail out into the night.
At dawn they will bring in again
To women knitting on the quay
Who wait for him, their man of men;
I stand with them, and watch the sea
Which may have taken mine from me.
Just so the long days come and go.
The nights, ma Doué! the nights are cold!
Our Lady's heart is as frozen snow,
Since this one sin I have not told;
And I shall die or perhaps grow old
Before he comes. The foreign ships
Bring many a one of face and name
As strange as his, to buy your lips,
A gold piece for a scarlet shame
Like mine. But mine was not the same.
One night was ours, one short grey day
Of sudden sin, unshrived, untold.
He found me, and I lost the way
To Paradise for him. I sold
My soul for love and not for gold
He bought my soul, but even so,
My face is all that he has seen,
His is the only face I know,
And in the dark church, like a screen.
It shuts God out; it comes between;
While in some narrow foreign street
Or loitering on the crowded quay,
Who knows what others he may meet
To turn his eyes away from me?
Many are fair to such as he!
There is but one for such as I
To love, to hate, to hunger for;
I shall, perhaps, grow old and die,
With one short day to spend and store,
One night, in all my life, no more.
Just so the long days come and go,
Yet this one sin I will not tell
Though Mary's heart is as frozen snow
And all nights are cold for one warmed too well.
But, oh! ma Doué! the nights of Hell!
Scheme | ababb cdcdd Efeff ghghh ififf ejejj kdkdd lmlmm Enenn |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 10110111 11010111 0101101 01110101 11110101 11111001 11010101 11111111 11110101 11110111 11011101 01110111 1010111101 11111111 011110111 01110101 110011101 11111111 01110101 11111101 111101111 1101101 11101101 1101111 11110111 11111101 11111111 11010111 00011101 11111101 10110101 110010101 11110111 11110111 10111111 11111111 11111101 11011101 11111101 11011111 11011101 11111111 110111101 0111111111 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,597 |
Words | 334 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 36 Views
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"Pêcheresse" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5551/p%C3%AAcheresse>.
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