When I would Imagine

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



When I would image her features,
Comes up a shrouded head:
I touch the outlines, shrinking;
She seems of the wandering dead.

But when love asks for nothing,
And lies on his bed of snow,
The face slips under my eyelids,
All in its living glow.

Like a dark cathedral city,
Whose spires, and domes, and towers
Quiver in violet lightnings,
My soul basks on for hours.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

20 sec read
409

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCB CDXD XAXA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 371
Words 69
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

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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