Analysis of An Insincere Wish Addressed to a Beggar

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge 1861 (London) – 1907



We are not near enough to love,
I can but pity all your woe;
For wealth has lifted me above,
And falsehood set you down below.

If you were true, we still might be
Brothers in something more than name;
And were I poor, your love to me
Would make our differing bonds the same.

But golden gates between us stretch,
Truth opens her forbidding eyes;
You can't forget that I am rich,
Nor I that you are telling lies.

Love never comes but at love's call,
And pity asks for him in vain;
Because I cannot give you all,
You give me nothing back again.

And you are right with all your wrong,
For less than all is nothing too;
May Heaven beggar me ere long,
And Truth reveal herself to you!


Scheme ABAB CDCD XEXE FXFX GHGH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (80%)
Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11110111 11110111 11110101 0111101 11011111 10010111 00111111 1110100101 11010111 11000101 11011111 11111101 11011111 01011101 01110111 11110101 01111111 11111101 11010111 01010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 667
Words 135
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

41 sec read
104

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge was a British novelist and poet who also wrote essays and reviews. more…

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