Analysis of Modern Love XIII: I Play for Seasons, Not Eternities
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
'I play for Seasons; not Eternities!'
Says Nature, laughing on her way. 'So must
All those whose stake is nothing more than dust!'
And lo, she wins, and of her harmonies
She is full sure! Upon her dying rose,
She drops a look of fondness, and goes by,
Scarce any retrospection in her eye;
For she the laws of growth most deeply knows,
Whose hands bear, here, a seed-bag--there, an urn.
Pledges she herself to aught, 'twould mark her end!
This lesson of our only visible friend,
Can we not teach our foolish hearts to learn ?
Yes! yes !--but, oh, our human rose is fair
Surpassingly! Lose calmly Love's great bliss,
When the renewed for ever of a kiss
Whirls life within the shower of loosened hair!
Scheme | ABBAACCADEEDFAAF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011 1101010111 1111110111 0111010100 1111010101 1101110011 1101001 1101111101 1111011111 10101111101 110110101001 11111010111 11111010111 1110111 1001110101 11010101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 706 |
Words | 131 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 532 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 128 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 82 Views
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"Modern Love XIII: I Play for Seasons, Not Eternities" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15516/modern-love-xiii%3A-i-play-for-seasons%2C-not-eternities>.
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