Analysis of On the Road to the Sea
Charlotte Mary Mew 1869 (Bloomsbury, London) – 1928 (London)
We passed each other, turned and stopped for half an hour, then went our way,
I who make other women smile did not make you--
But no man can move mountains in a day.
So this hard thing is yet to do.
But first I want your life:--before I die I want to see
The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes,
There is nothing gay or green there for my gathering, it may be,
Yet on brown fields there lies
A haunting purple bloom: is there not something in grey skies
And in grey sea?
I want what world there is behind your eyes,
I want your life and you will not give it me.
Now, if I look, I see you walking down the years,
Young, and through August fields--a face, a thought, a swinging dream
perched on a stile--;
I would have liked (so vile we are!) to have taught you tears
But most to have made you smile.
To-day is not enough or yesterday: God sees it all--
Your length on sunny lawns, the wakeful rainy nights--; tell me--;
(how vain to ask), but it is not a question--just a call--;
Show me then, only your notched inches climbing up the garden wall,
I like you best when you are small.
Is this a stupid thing to say
Not having spent with you one day?
No matter; I shall never touch your hair
Or hear the little tick behind your breast,
Still it is there,
And as a flying bird
Brushes the branches where it may not rest
I have brushed your hand and heard
The child in you: I like that best
So small, so dark, so sweet; and were you also then too grave and wise?
Always I think. Then put your far off little hand in mine;--
Oh! let it rest;
I will not stare into the early world beyond the opening eyes,
Or vex or scare what I love best.
But I want your life before mine bleeds away--
Here--not in heavenly hereafters--soon,--
I want your smile this very afternoon,
(The last of all my vices, pleasant people used to say,
I wanted and I sometimes got--the Moon!)
You know, at dusk, the last bird's cry,
And round the house the flap of the bat's low flight,
Trees that go black against the sky
And then--how soon the night!
No shadow of you on any bright road again,
And at the darkening end of this--what voice? whose kiss? As if you'd say!
It is not I who have walked with you, it will not be I who take away
Peace, peace, my little handful of the gleaner's grain
From your reaped fields at the shut of day.
Peace! Would you not rather die
Reeling,--with all the cannons at your ear?
So, at least, would I,
And I may not be here
To-night, to-morrow morning or next year.
Still I will let you keep your life a little while,
See dear?
I have made you smile.
Scheme | ABAB CDCDDCDC XXEXEFCFFF AAGHGIHIHDXHDHAJJAJ KLKL XAAXA KMKMNENE |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101011111011101 111101011111 1111110001 11111111 11111101111111 011101010111 1110111111100111 111111 01010111110011 0011 1111110111 11110111111 111111110101 10110101010101 1101 1111111111111 1111111 1111011101111 1111010110111 11111111010101 1111011101010101 11111111 11010111 11011111 1101110111 1101010111 1111 010101 1001011111 1111101 01011111 1111110011011101 1111111110101 1111 11110101010101001 11111111 11111011101 11010011 111111001 01111101010111 1100101101 11110111 01010110111 11110101 011101 11111101101 01010011111111111 111111111111111101 1111011011 111110111 1111101 1011010111 11111 011111 1111010111 111111110101 11 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,524 |
Words | 513 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 8, 10, 19, 4, 5, 8 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 277 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 72 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:35 min read
- 94 Views
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"On the Road to the Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5550/on-the-road-to-the-sea>.
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