Analysis of Modern Love VI: It Chanced His Lips Did Meet
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
It chanced his lips did meet her forehead cool.
She had no blush, but slanted down her eye.
Shamed nature, then, confesses love can die:
And most she punishes the tender fool
Who will believe what honours her the most!
Dead! is it dead? She has a pulse, and flow
Of tears, the price of blood-drops, as I know,
For whom the midnight sobs around Love's ghost,
Since then I heard her, and so will sob on.
The love is here; it has but changed its aim.
O bitter barren woman! what's the name?
The name, the name, the new name thou hast won?
Behold me striking the world's coward stroke!
That will I not do, though the sting is dire.
Beneath the surface this, while by the fire
They sat, she laughing at a quiet joke.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFGHIJH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110101 1111110101 1101010111 0111000101 110111001 1111110101 1101111111 110110111 1111001111 0111111111 1101010101 0101011111 0111001101 1111110111 01010111010 1111010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 719 |
Words | 139 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 542 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 137 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 138 Views
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"Modern Love VI: It Chanced His Lips Did Meet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15510/modern-love-vi%3A-it-chanced-his-lips-did-meet>.
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