Analysis of The Definition Of Love
Andrew Marvell 1621 (Winestead) – 1678 (London)
My Love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high:
It was begotten by despair
Upon Impossibility.
Magnanimous Despair alone.
Could show me so divine a thing,
Where feeble Hope could ne'r have flown
But vainly flapt its Tinsel Wing.
And yet I quickly might arrive
Where my extended Soul is fixt,
But Fate does Iron wedges drive,
And alwaies crouds it self betwixt.
For Fate with jealous Eye does see.
Two perfect Loves; nor lets them close:
Their union would her ruine be,
And her Tyrannick pow'r depose.
And therefore her Decrees of Steel
Us as the distant Poles have plac'd,
(Though Loves whole World on us doth wheel)
Not by themselves to be embrac'd.
Unless the giddy Heaven fall,
And Earth some new Convulsion tear;
And, us to joyn, the World should all
Be cramp'd into a Planisphere.
As Lines so Loves Oblique may well
Themselves in every Angle greet:
But ours so truly Paralel,
Though infinite can never meet.
Therefore the Love which us doth bind,
But Fate so enviously debarrs,
Is the Conjunction of the Mind,
And Opposition of the Stars.
Scheme | AXAB CDCD EBEX BFBX GHGH IAIA XJGJ KFKX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 11110111 11110101 11010101 0100100 01000101 11110101 110111111 11011101 01110101 11010111 11110101 0111101 11110111 10111111 1101011 0011101 0100111 11010111 11111111 11011101 01010101 01110101 01110111 110101 11110111 010100101 1101101 11001101 1011111 11110001 10010101 0010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,039 |
Words | 192 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 194 Views
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"The Definition Of Love" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2890/the-definition-of-love>.
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