Analysis of You would have understood me, had you waited



You would have understood me, had you waited;
I could have loved you, dear! as well as he:
Had we not been impatient, dear! and fated
Always to disagree.

What is the use of speech? Silence were fitter:
Lest we should still be wishing things unsaid.
Though all the words we ever spake were bitter,
Shall I reproach you dead?

Nay, let this earth, your portion, likewise cover
All the old anger, setting us apart:
Always, in all, in truth was I your lover;
Always, I held your heart.

I have met other women who were tender,
As you were cold, dear! with a grace as rare.
Think you, I turned to them, or made surrender,
I who had found you fair?

Had we been patient, dear! ah, had you waited,
I had fought death for you, better than he:
But from the very first, dear! we were fated
Always to disagree.

Late, late, I come to you, now death discloses
Love that in life was not to be our part:
On your low lying mound between the roses,
Sadly I cast my heart.

I would not waken you: nay! this is fitter;
Death and the darkness give you unto me;
Here we who loved so, were so cold and bitter,
Hardly can disagree.


Scheme abcB dede dfdf dgdg abcB hfhf dbdb
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1110111110 1111111111 11110101010 11001 11011110010 1111110101 11011101010 110111 1111110110 1011010101 1010111110 11111 11110101010 1101110111 11111111010 111111 11110111110 1111111011 11010111010 11001 11111111010 11011111101 11110101010 101111 11110111110 1001011101 11111011010 101001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,085
Words 216
Sentences 17
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 120
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 23, 2023

1:04 min read
107

Ernest Christopher Dowson

Ernest Christopher Dowson was born in 1867 at Lea in Kent England he was an English poet novelist and writer of short stories associated with the Decadent movement Most of his life was spent in France more…

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