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!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 104 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEXE FXFX GHGH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 667 |
Words | 135 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"An Insincere Wish Addressed to a Beggar" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/26863/an-insincere-wish-addressed-to-a-beggar>.
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