Analysis of Sullen Moods
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
Love, do not count your labour lost
Though I turn sullen, grim, retired
Even at your side; my thought is crossed
With fancies by old longings fired.
And when I answer you, some days
Vaguely and wildly, do not fear
That my love walks forbidden ways,
Breaking the ties that hold it here.
If I speak gruffly, this mood is
Mere indignation at my own
Shortcomings, plagues, uncertainties;
I forget the gentler tone.
'You,' now that you have come to be
My one beginning, prime and end,
I count at last as wholly 'me,'
Lover no longer nor yet friend.
Friendship is flattery, though close hid;
Must I then flatter my own mind?
And must (which laws of shame forbid)
Blind love of you make self-love blind?
... Do not repay me my own coin,
The sharp rebuke, the frown, the groan;
No, stir my memory to disjoin
Your emanation from my own.
Help me to see you as before
When overwhelmed and dead, almost,
I stumbled on that secret door
Which saves the live man from the ghost.
Be once again the distant light,
Promise of glory not yet known
In full perfection — -wasted quite
When on my imperfection thrown.
Scheme | AXAX BXBX XCXC DEDE FGFG XCCC HIHI JCJC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 1111111 11110101 101111111 110111010 01110111 10010111 11111001 10011111 11110111 1010111 1010100 1010101 11111111 11010101 11111101 10110111 101100111 11110111 01111101 11111111 11011111 01010101 11110011 1010111 11111101 101011 11011101 11011101 11010101 10110111 01010101 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,073 |
Words | 205 |
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) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 81 Views
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