Absence
Matthew Arnold 1822 (Laleham) – 1888 (Liverpool)
IN THIS fair stranger’s eyes of grey
Thine eyes, my love, I see.
I shudder: for the passing day
Had borne me far from thee.
This is the curse of life: that not
A nobler calmer train
Of wiser thoughts and feelings blot
Our passions from our brain;
But each day brings its petty dust
Our soon-chok’d souls to fill,
And we forget because we must,
And not because we will.
I struggle towards the light; and ye,
Once-long’d-for storms of love!
If with the light ye cannot be,
I bear that ye remove.
I struggle towards the light; but oh,
While yet the night is chill,
Upon Time’s barren, stormy flow,
Stay with me, Marguerite, still!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 10, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 233 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF BXBX GFGF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 624 |
Words | 119 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Absence" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/27249/absence>.
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