Analysis of Absence
John Frederick Freeman 1880 – 1929
Distance no grace can lend you, but for me
Distance yet magnifies your mystery.
With you, and soon content, I ask how should
In your two eyes be hid my heaven of good?
How should your own mere voice the strange words speak
That tease me with the sense of what's to seek
In all the world beside? How your brown hair,
That simply and neglectfully you wear,
Bind my wild thoughts in its abundant snare?
With you, I wonder how you're stranger than
Another woman to another man;
But parted--and you're as a ship unknown
That to poor castaways at dawn is shown
As strange as dawn, so strange they fear a trick
Of eyes long-vexed and hope with falseness sick.
Parted, and like the riddle of a dream,
Dark with rich promise, does your beauty seem.
I wonder at your patience, stirless peace,
Your subtle pride, mute pity's quick release.
Then are you strange to me and sweet as light
Or dew; as strange and dark as starless night.
Then let this restless parting be forgiven:
I go from you to find in you strange heaven.
Scheme | AABBCCDDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011111111 101101100 1101101111 01111111011 1111110111 1111011111 0101011111 1100111 1111010101 1111011101 0101010101 1100110101 111101111 1111111101 111101111 1001010101 1111011101 110111011 110111101 1111110111 111101111 11110101010 11111101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 988 |
Words | 188 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 23 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 791 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 188 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 4 Views
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"Absence" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55894/absence>.
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