Analysis of Love's Grave

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



MARK where the pressing wind shoots javelin-like,
Its skeleton shadow on the broad-back'd wave!
Here is a fitting spot to dig Love's grave;
Here where the ponderous breakers plunge and strike,
And dart their hissing tongues high up the sand:
In hearing of the ocean, and in sight
Of those ribb'd wind-streaks running into white.
If I the death of Love had deeply plann'd,
I never could have made it half so sure,
As by the unblest kisses which upbraid
The full-waked sense; or failing that, degrade!
'Tis morning: but no morning can restore
What we have forfeited. I see no sin:
The wrong is mix'd. In tragic life, God wot,
No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
We are betray'd by what is false within.


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFGHCIH
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111001 1100110111 1101011111 11010010101 0111011101 0101010001 1111110011 1101111101 1101111111 11011011 0111110101 1101110101 1111001111 0111010111 1101110101 1101111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 716
Words 129
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 550
Words per stanza (avg) 127
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
76

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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