Analysis of Isolation: To Marguerite
Matthew Arnold 1822 (Laleham) – 1888 (Liverpool)
We were apart; yet, day by day,
I bade my heart more constant be.
I bade it keep the world away,
And grow a home for only thee;
Nor fear'd but thy love likewise grew,
Like mine, each day, more tried, more true.
The fault was grave! I might have known,
What far too soon, alas! I learn'd--
The heart can bind itself alone,
And faith may oft be unreturn'd.
Self-sway'd our feelings ebb and swell--
Thou lov'st no more;--Farewell! Farewell!
Farewell!--and thou, thou lonely heart,
Which never yet without remorse
Even for a moment didst depart
From thy remote and spher{`e}d course
To haunt the place where passions reign--
Back to thy solitude again!
Back! with the conscious thrill of shame
Which Luna felt, that summer-night,
Flash through her pure immortal frame,
When she forsook the starry height
To hang over Endymion's sleep
Upon the pine-grown Latmian steep.
Yet she, chaste queen, had never proved
How vain a thing is mortal love,
Wandering in Heaven, far removed.
But thou hast long had place to prove
This truth--to prove, and make thine own:
'Thou hast been, shalt be, art, alone.'
Or, if not quite alone, yet they
Which touch thee are unmating things--
Ocean and clouds and night and day;
Lorn autumns and triumphant springs;
And life, and others' joy and pain,
And love, if love, of happier men.
Of happier men--for they, at least,
Have dream'd two human hearts might blend
In one, and were through faith released
From isolation without end
Prolong'd; nor knew, although not less
Alone than thou, their loneliness.
Scheme | ABABCC DXDAEE FGFGHI JKJKLL MXMXDD ANANHI OPOPXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10011111 11111101 11110101 01011101 1111111 11111111 01111111 11110111 01110101 011111 111010101 111111 1011101 11010101 101010101 110101111 11011101 1111001 11010111 11011101 11010101 11010101 111011 0101111 11111101 11011101 100010101 11111111 11110111 11111101 11110111 111111 10010101 1100101 01010101 011111001 110011111 11110111 01001101 1010011 0111111 01111100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,493 |
Words | 269 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 182 Views
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"Isolation: To Marguerite" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/27265/isolation%3A-to-marguerite>.
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