Analysis of The Thieves

Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)



Lovers in the act despense
With such meum-tuum sense
As might warningly reveal
What they must not pick or steal,
And their nostrum is to say:
'I and you are both away.'

After, when they disentwine
You from me and yours from mine,
Neither can be certain who
Was that I whose mine was you.
To the act again they go
More completely not to know.

Theft is theft and raid is raid
Though reciprocally made.
Lovers, the conclusion is
Doubled sighs and jealousies
In a single heart that grieves
For lost honour among thieves.


Scheme AABBAX CCDDXC EEAAAA
Poetic Form
Metre 100011 11111 1110001 1111111 011111 1011101 10111 1110111 1011101 1111111 1010111 1010111 1110111 111 1000101 1010100 0010111 111011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 509
Words 98
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 136
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

29 sec read
163

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, scholar/translator/writer of antiquity specializing in Classical Greece and Rome, novelist and soldier in World War One. more…

All Robert Graves poems | Robert Graves Books

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