Analysis of Love's Suicide
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.
THIS treasure of love, these passion-flowers,
Dear as desire, are dearly bought:
The sweet unrest of seeing you
For some too-happy hour or two,
Is paid by such a wealth of tears,
Such grief, such bitterness, such fears,
Such wild remorse, such weak regret,
Such tide of longing towards you set,
As poison all my other hours,
And murder every other thought.
I cannot drink joy steeped in fears,
I choose the cold unhurtful days;
The roses you hold out to me
Are red and sweet enough to be
A crown one would so gladly wear
If but one's brows were strong to bear
The weight, and did not ache and ache
For the fair coronation's sake,
And dread of coming crownless years
When tired feet shall tread thorny ways.
There is a peace in sombre skies
Where no sun even tries to shine,
But not in these where transient glow,
And passionate bursts of sunshine show
Only life's dull fields drenched with rain,
And then the clouds set fast again
Into a leaden sky like this is,
Lit by no lightnings of warm kisses,
Whence, while I look into your eyes,
A thunderbolt may fall on mine.
I give you back the rose I stole,
Pluck but pale leaves that near me grow.
I cannot love with half a heart,
'Tis all or nothing for my part;
And since the all may not be ours,
Since we may only pluck Love's flowers,
But may not in his temple stay,
I choose the grey and lonely way--
And you--be thankful from your soul
That, loving you, I let you go.
Scheme | A BXCCXDEEBX DFGGHHIIDF JKALXXXXJK ALMMBBNNAL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111 1101111010 110101101 01011101 111101011 11110111 11110011 11011101 111100111 110111010 010100101 11011101 110111 01011111 11010111 01111101 11110111 01011101 10111 0111011 110111101 1101011 11110111 11011101 01001111 10111111 01011101 010101111 111101110 11110111 0101111 11110111 11111111 11011101 11110111 010111110 111101110 11101101 11010101 01110111 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,459 |
Words | 279 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 225 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 37 Views
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"Love's Suicide" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8860/love%27s-suicide>.
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