Analysis of If Only

Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)



If I might only love my God and die!
But now He bids me love Him and live on,
Now when the bloom of all my life is gone,
The pleasant half of life has quite gone by.
My tree of hope is lopped that spread so high,
And I forget how summer glowed and shone,
While autumn grips me with its fingers wan
And frets me with its fitful windy sigh.
When autumn passes then must winter numb,
And winter may not pass a weary while,
But when it passes spring shall flower again;
And in that spring who weepeth now shall smile,
Yea, they shall wax who now are on the wane,
Yea, they shall sing for love when Christ shall come.


Scheme ABCAADBAEFGFHE
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011101 1111111011 1101111111 0101111111 1111111111 0101110101 1101111101 0111110101 1101011101 0101110101 11110111001 001111111 1111111101 1111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 608
Words 126
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 474
Words per stanza (avg) 124
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

37 sec read
125

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote various romantic, devotional, and children's poems. "Goblin Market" and "Remember" remain famous. She wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in the UK: "In the Bleak Midwinter", later set by Gustav Holst and by Harold Darke, and "Love Came Down at Christmas", set by Harold Darke and by other composers. more…

All Christina Georgina Rossetti poems | Christina Georgina Rossetti Books

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