Analysis of Modern Love V: A Message from Her

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



A message from her set his brain aflame.
A world of household matters filled her mind,
Wherein he saw hypocrisy designed:
She treated him as something that is tame,
And but at other provocation bites.
Familiar was her shoulder in the glass,
Through that dark rain: yet it may come to pass
That a changed eye finds such familiar sights
More keenly tempting than new loveliness.
The 'What has been' a moment seemed his own:
The splendours, mysteries, dearer because known,
Nor less divine: Love's inmost sacredness
Called to him, 'Come!'--In his restraining start,
Eyes nurtured to be looked at, scarce could see
A wave of the great waves of Destiny
Convulsed at a checked impulse of the heart.


Scheme ABBACDDCCEEFGHHG
Poetic Form
Metre 0101011101 011110101 0111010001 1101110111 011100101 0101010001 1111111111 1011110101 11010111 0111010111 0110010011 110111100 1111010101 1101111111 0110111100 110110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 700
Words 122
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 549
Words per stanza (avg) 119
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
44

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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