Analysis of Her Going
Eleanor Agnes Lee 1841 (Arlington County, Virginia) – 1873 (Lexington, Virginia)
The Wife
Child, why do you linger beside her portal?
None shall hear you now if you knock or clamor*
All is dark, hidden in heaviest leafage.
None shall behold you.
Truth
Gone, gone, the dear, the beautiful lady!
I, her comrade, tarry but to lament her.
Ah, the day of her vanishing all things lovely
Shared in her fleetness!
Tell me her going.
The Wife
You are a child. How tell you?
Truth
I am a child, yet old as the earliest sorrow.
Talk to me as you would to an old, old woman.
I own the ages.
The Wife
Voices, they say, gossipped around her dwelling.
She awoke, departing, they say, in silence.
I am glad she is gone. The old hurt fastens.
Hate is upon me.
It was hard to live down the day, and wonder,
Wonder why the tears were forever welling,
Wonder if on his lips her kiss I tasted
Turning to claim him.
Truth
Jealousy, mad, brooding blind and unfettered,
Takes its terrible leap over lie and malice.
Who shall question her now in the land of shadow?
Who shal1 uphold her?
The Wife
It was hard to know that peace had forsaken
All my house, to greet with a dull endeavor
Babe or book, so to forget a moment
I was forgotten.
Truth
Who shall question her now in the land of shadow,
Question the mute pale lips, and the marble fingers,
Eyelids fallen on eyes grown dim as the autumn?
Ah, the beloved!
The Wife
Go, go, bringer of ache and discord!
Truth
Go I may not. Some, they think to inter me.
Out of the mold and clay my visible raiment
Rises forever.
The Wife
Hers the sin that lured the light from our threshold,
Hers the sin that I lost his love and grew bitter.
Truth
Lost his love? You never possessed it, woman.
The Wife
Sharp tongue, have pity! . . .
Yes, I knew. But I loved him, hoping for all.
I said in my heart: 'Time shall bring buds to blossom.'
I almost saw the flower of the flame descending.
Then she came toying.
He is mine, mine, by the laws of the ages!
Mine, mine, mine yes, body and spirit!
I am glad she has gone her way to the shadow.
Hate is upon me.
Oh, the bar over which my soul would see
All that eludes my soul, while he remembers!
You, dispel if you can my avenging passion
Clouds are before me!
Scheme | Axbxc Debefg Ac Dhif AgffE bgxx DxfHb Aibxi DHfjx Ax Deeb Axb Di Ae xjgg fxhE efie |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01 11111001010 11111111110 1111001001 11011 1 1101010010 1011011010 101101001110 1001 11010 01 1101111 1 1101111010010 111111111110 11010 01 1011101010 10101011010 1111110111 11011 11111101010 10101001010 10111101110 10111 1 10011010010 111001101010 11100100111 11010 01 11111111010 11111101010 1111101010 11010 1 11100100111 100111001010 11011111010 1001 01 11111010 1 11111111011 11010111001 10010 01 00111011101 001111110110 1 11111001110 01 11110 11111111011 110111111110 111010101010 11110 11111011010 111110010 11111101101 11011 1011011111 11011111010 101111101010 11011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,127 |
Words | 418 |
Sentences | 47 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 6, 2, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 2, 4, 3, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 2:05 min read
- 119 Views
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"Her Going" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10135/her-going>.
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