Analysis of A Good-Bye
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
FAREWELL! How soon unmeasured distance rolls
Its leaden clouds between our parted souls!
How little to each other now are we--
And once how much I dreamed we two might be!
I, who now stand with eyes undimmed and dry
To say good-bye--
To say good-bye to all sweet memories,
Good-bye to tender questions, soft replies;
Good bye to hope, good-bye to dreaming too,
Good-bye to all things dear--good-bye to you,
Without a kiss, a tear, a prayer, a sigh--
Our last good-bye.
I had no chain to bind you with at all;
No grace to charm, no beauty to enthral;
No power to hold your eyes with mine, and make
Your heart on fire with longing for my sake,
Till all the yearning passed into one cry:
'Love, not good-bye!'
Ah, no--I had no strength like that, you know;
Yet my worst weakness was to love you so!
So much too well--so much too well--or ill--
Yet even that might have been pardoned still--
It would have been had I been you--you I!
But now--good-bye!
How soon the bitter follows on the sweet!
Could I not chain your fancy's flying feet?
Could I not hold your soul--to make you play
To-morrow in the key of yesterday--?
Dear--do you dream that I would stoop to try?
Ah, no--Good-bye!
Scheme | AABBCC XXDDCC EEFFCC GGHHCC IIJJCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (23%) |
Metre | 1111101 11010110101 1101110111 0111111111 111111101 1111 1111111100 1111010101 1111111101 1111111111 0101010101 10111 1111111111 1111110101 11011111101 11110110111 1101010111 1111 1111111111 1111011111 1111111111 1101111101 1111111111 1111 1101010101 111111101 1111111111 110001110 1111111111 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,188 |
Words | 221 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 177 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 121 Views
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"A Good-Bye" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8759/a-good-bye>.
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