Analysis of A Woman’s Question
Adelaide Anne Procter 1825 (Bedford Square) – 1864
BEFORE I trust my fate to thee,
Or place my hand in thine,
Before I let thy future give
Color and form to mine,
Before I peril all for thee, question thy soul to-night for me.
I break all slighter bonds, nor feel
A shadow of regret:
Is there one link within the Past
That holds thy spirit yet?
Or is thy faith as clear and free as that which I can pledge to thee?
Does there within thy dimmest dreams
A possible future shine,
Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe,
Untouch’d, unshar’d by mine?
If so, at any pain or cost, O, tell me before all is lost.
Look deeper still. If thou canst feel,
Within thy inmost soul,
That thou hast kept a portion back,
While I have stak’d the whole;
Let no false pity spare the blow, but in true mercy tell me so.
Is there within thy heart a need
That mine cannot fulfil?
One chord that any other hand
Could better wake or still?
Speak now—lest at some future day my whole life wither and decay.
Lives there within thy nature hid
The demon-spirit Change,
Shedding a passing glory still
On all things new and strange?
It may not be thy fault alone—but shield my heart against thy own.
Couldst thou withdraw thy hand one day
And answer to my claim,
That Fate, and that to-day’s mistake—
Not thou—had been to blame?
Some soothe their conscience thus; but thou wilt surely warn and save me now.
Nay, answer not,—I dare not hear,
The words would come too late;
Yet I would spare thee all remorse,
So, comfort thee, my fate—
Whatever on my heart may fall—remember, I would risk it all!
Scheme | ABXBA CDXDA XBXBX CEXEX XCXFG XHFHX GIXIX XJXJX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (28%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 01111111 111101 01111101 100111 0111011110111111 1111111 01101 11110101 111101 1111110111111111 1101111 0100101 01111111 1111 1111011111101111 11011111 01111 11110101 111101 1111010110110111 11011101 11101 11110101 110111 1111110111110001 11011101 010101 10010101 111101 1111110111110111 11011111 010111 11011101 111111 1111011111010111 11011111 011111 11111101 110111 101111101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,596 |
Words | 289 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 147 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 93 Views
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"A Woman’s Question" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/202/a-woman%E2%80%99s-question>.
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