Analysis of Modern Love IV: All Other Joys of Life
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
All other joys of life he strove to warm,
And magnify, and catch them to his lip:
But they had suffered shipwreck with the ship,
And gazed upon him sallow from the storm.
Or if Delusion came, 'twas but to show
The coming minute mock the one that went.
Cold as a mountain in its star-pitched tent,
Stood high Philosophy, less friend than foe:
Whom self-caged Passion, from its prison-bars,
Is always watching with a wondering hate.
Not till the fire is dying in the grate,
Look we for any kinship with the stars.
Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold,
And the great price we pay for it full worth:
We have it only when we are half earth.
Little avails that coinage to the old!
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFEGHHG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111111 010011111 1111010101 010111101 1101011111 0101010111 1101001111 1101001111 1111011101 1110101001 11010110001 111101101 1101011111 0011111111 1111011111 101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 684 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 525 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 128 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
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"Modern Love IV: All Other Joys of Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15506/modern-love-iv%3A-all-other-joys-of-life>.
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