Analysis of A Ballad Of Fair Ladies In Revolt

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



See the sweet women, friend, that lean beneath
The ever-falling fountain of green leaves
Round the white bending stem, and like a wreath
Of our most blushful flower shine trembling through,
To teach philosophers the thirst of thieves:
Is one for me? is one for you?

- Fair sirs, we give you welcome, yield you place,
And you shall choose among us which you will,
Without the idle pastime of the chase,
If to this treaty you can well agree:
To wed our cause, and its high task fulfil.
He who's for us, for him are we!

- Most gracious ladies, nigh when light has birth,
A troop of maids, brown as burnt heather-bells,
And rich with life as moss-roots breathe of earth
In the first plucking of them, past us flew
To labour, singing rustic ritornells:
Had they a cause? are they of you?

- Sirs, they are as unthinking armies are
To thoughtful leaders, and our cause is theirs.
When they know men they know the state of war:
But now they dream like sunlight on a sea,
And deem you hold the half of happy pairs.
He who's for us, for him are we!

- Ladies, I listened to a ring of dames;
Judicial in the robe and wig; secure
As venerated portraits in their frames;
And they denounced some insurrection new
Against sound laws which keep you good and pure.
Are you of them? are they of you?

- Sirs, they are of us, as their dress denotes,
And by as much: let them together chime:
It is an ancient bell within their throats,
Pulled by an aged ringer; with what glee
Befits the yellow yesterdays of time.
He who's for us, for him are we!

- Sweet ladies, you with beauty, you with wit;
Dowered of all favours and all blessed things
Whereat the ruddy torch of Love is lit;
Wherefore this vain and outworn strife renew,
Which stays the tide no more than eddy-rings?
Who is for love must be for you.

- The manners of the market, honest sirs,
'Tis hard to quit when you behold the wares.
You flatter us, or perchance our milliners
You flatter; so this vain and outworn She
May still be the charmed snake to your soft airs!
A higher lord than Love claim we.

- One day, dear lady, missing the broad track,
I came on a wood's border, by a mead,
Where golden May ran up to moted black:
And there I saw Queen Beauty hold review,
With Love before her throne in act to plead.
Take him for me, take her for you.

- Ingenious gentleman, the tale is known.
Love pleaded sweetly: Beauty would not melt:
She would not melt: he turned in wrath: her throne
The shadow of his back froze witheringly,
And sobbing at his feet Queen Beauty knelt.
O not such slaves of Love are we!

- Love, lady, like the star above that lance
Of radiance flung by sunset on ridged cloud,
Sad as the last line of a brave romance! -
Young Love hung dim, yet quivering round him threw
Beams of fresh fire, while Beauty waned and bowed.
Scorn Love, and dread the doom for you.

- Called she not for her mirror, sir? Forth ran
Her women: I am lost, she cried, when lo,
Love in the form of an admiring man
Once more in adoration bent the knee,
And brought the faded Pagan to full blow:
For which her throne she gave: not we!

- My version, madam, runs not to that end.
A certain madness of an hour half past,
Caught her like fever; her just lord no friend
She fancied; aimed beyond beauty, and thence grew
The prim acerbity, sweet Love's outcast.
Great heaven ward off that stroke from you!

- Your prayer to heaven, good sir, is generous:
How generous likewise that you do not name
Offended nature! She from all of us
Couched idle underneath our showering tree,
May quite withhold her most destructive flame;
And then what woeful women we!

- Quite, could not be, fair lady; yet your youth
May run to drought in visionary schemes:
And a late waking to perceive the truth,
When day falls shrouding her supreme adieu,
Shows darker wastes than unaccomplished dreams:
And that may be in store for you.

- O sir, the truth, the truth! is't in the skies,
Or in the grass, or in this heart of ours?
But O the truth, the truth! the many eyes
That look on it! the diverse things they see,
According to their thirst for fruit or flowers!
Pass on: it is the truth seek we.

- Lady, there is a truth of settled laws
That down the past burns like a g


Scheme abacbc dedfeF gxgcbc xhxfhF ijicjc klkflF mnmcnc bhbfhf opocpc qrqerf stsctc uvufvf wxwcxc yzyfzf 1 2 1 c2 c 3 4 3 f4 f xf
Poetic Form
Metre 1011011101 0101010111 1011010101 110111011001 1101000111 11111111 1111110111 0111011111 010101101 1111011101 1110101111 11111111 1101011111 0111111101 0111111111 0011011111 1110101 11011111 1111010101 11010010111 1111110111 111111101 0111011101 11111111 1011010111 0100010101 110010011 010110101 0111111101 11111111 1111111101 0111110101 1111010111 111110111 010101011 11111111 1101110111 11110111 101011111 11101101 1101111101 11111111 0101010101 1111110101 1101101101 110111011 1110111111 01011111 1111010011 1110110101 110111111 011111011 1101010111 11111011 0101000111 1101010111 1111110101 0111111 0101111101 11111111 1101010111 1100111111 1101110101 11111100111 11110110101 11010111 1111010111 0101111111 1001110101 110010101 0101010111 11011111 1101011111 01010111011 1011001111 11010110011 011111 110111111 11110111100 1100111111 0101011111 11001101001 1101010101 01110101 1111110111 111101001 0011010101 1111000101 1101111 01110111 11010111001 10011011110 1101010101 1111001111 01011111110 11110111 1011011101 11011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,118
Words 814
Sentences 42
Stanzas 17
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 2
Lines Amount 98
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 189
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

4:06 min read
67

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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