Phaedra

Edith Wharton 1862 (New York City) – 1937 (Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt)



NOT that on me the Cyprian fury fell,
Last martyr of my love-ensanguined race;
Not that my children drop the averted face
When my name shames the silence; not that hell
Holds me where nevermore his glance shall dwell
Nightlong between my lids, my pulses race
Through flying pines the tempest of the chase,
Nor my heart rest with him beside the well.

Not that he hates me; not, O baffled gods -
Not that I slew him! - yet, because your goal
Is always reached, nor your rejoicing rods
Fell ever yet upon insensate clods,
Know, the one pang that makes your triumph whole
Is, that he knows the baseness of my soul.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
63

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBA CDCBDD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 605
Words 116
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. more…

All Edith Wharton poems | Edith Wharton Books

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