Analysis of Modern Love XVIII: Here Jack and Tom
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
Here Jack and Tom are paired with Moll and Meg.
Curved open to the river-reach is seen
A country merry-making on the green.
Fair space for signal shakings of the leg.
That little screwy fiddler from his booth,
Whence flows one nut-brown stream, commands the joints
Of all who caper here at various points.
I have known rustic revels in my youth:
The May-fly pleasures of a mind at ease.
An early goddess was a county lass:
A charmed Amphion-oak she tripped the grass.
What life was that I lived? The life of these?
Heaven keep them happy! Nature they seem near.
They must, I think, be wiser than I am;
They have the secret of the bull and lamb.
'Tis true that when we trace its source, 'tis beer.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFEGHHG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111101 1101010111 0101010101 111101101 11010100111 1111110101 11110111001 1111010011 0111010111 1101010101 01111101 1111110111 10111010111 1111110111 1101010101 1111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 704 |
Words | 132 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 540 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 130 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 94 Views
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"Modern Love XVIII: Here Jack and Tom" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15532/modern-love-xviii%3A-here-jack-and-tom>.
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