Analysis of Modern Love XXXVIII: Give to Imagination

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



Give to imagination some pure light
In human form to fix it, or you shame
The devils with that hideous human game:
Imagination urging appetite!
Thus fallen have earth's greatest Gogmagogs,
Who dazzle us, whom we can not revere:
Imagination is the charioteer
That, in default of better, drives the hogs.
So, therefore, my dear Lady, let me love!
My soul is arrowy to the light in you.
You know me that I never can renew
The bond that woman broke: what would you have?
'Tis Love, or Vileness! not a choice between,
Save petrifaction! What does Pity here?
She killed a thing, and now it's dead, 'tis dear.
Oh, when you counsel me, think what you mean!


Scheme ABBACDDCEFFGHIDH
Poetic Form
Metre 110010111 0101111111 01011100101 00101010 11011101 1101111101 0010101 1001110101 111110111 111110101 1111110101 0111011111 111110101 1111101 1101011111 1111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 656
Words 120
Sentences 11
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 500
Words per stanza (avg) 118
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
51

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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