Analysis of I do but ask that you be always fair

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)



I do but ask that you be always fair
That I forever may continue kind;
Knowing me what I am, you should not dare
To lapse from beauty ever, nor seek to bind
My alterable mood with lesser cords;
Weeping and such soft matters must invite
To further vagrancy; and bitter words
Chafe soon to irremediable flight,
Wherefore I pray you if you love me dearly,
Less dear to hold me than your own bright charms,
Whence it may fall that until death, or nearly,
I shall not move to struggle from your arms:
Fade if you must,--I would but bid you be
Like the sweet year, doing all things graciously.


Scheme ABABCDEDFGFGFF
Poetic Form
Metre 111111111 1101010101 1011111111 11110101111 1111101 1001110101 1101000101 111010001 1111111110 1111111111 11111011110 1111110111 1111111111 10111011100
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 595
Words 114
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 461
Words per stanza (avg) 111
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
96

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism more…

All Edna St. Vincent Millay poems | Edna St. Vincent Millay Books

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