Analysis of Modern Love XV: I Think She Sleeps

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



I think she sleeps: it must be sleep, when low
Hangs that abandoned arm toward the floor;
The face turned with it. Now make fast the door.
Sleep on: it is your husband, not your foe.
The Poet's black stage-lion of wronged love,
Frights not our modern dames:--well if he did!
Now will I pour new light upon that lid,
Full-sloping like the breasts beneath. 'Sweet dove,
Your sleep is pure. Nay, pardon: I disturb.
I do not? good!' Her waking infant-stare
Grows woman to the burden my hands bear:
Her own handwriting to me when no curb
Was left on Passion's tongue. She trembles through;
A woman's tremble--the whole instrument:--
I show another letter lately sent.
The words are very like: the name is new.


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFEGHIG
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111111 1101010101 0111111101 1111110111 0101110111 11101011111 1111110111 1101010111 1111110101 1111010101 1101010111 011011111 11111111 0101001100 1101010101 0111010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 712
Words 131
Sentences 13
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 538
Words per stanza (avg) 126
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
72

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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