Analysis of One Among So Many
. . . In a dark street she met and spoke to me,
Importuning, one wet and mild March night.
We walked and talked together. O her tale
Was very common; thousands know it all!
'Seduced'; a gentleman; a baby coming;
Parents that railed; London; the child born dead;
A seamstress then, one of some fifty girls
'Taken on' a few months at a dressmaker's
In the crush of the 'season' at ten shillings a week!
The fashionable people's dresses done,
And they flown off, these fifty extra girls
Sent — to the streets: that is, to work that gives
Scarcely enough to buy the decent clothes
Respectable employers all demand
Or speak dismissal. Well, well, well, we know!
And she — 'Why, I have gone on down and down,
And there's the gutter, look, that I shall die in!'
'My dear,' I say, 'where hope of all but that
Is gone, 'tis time, I think, life were gone too.'
She looks at me. 'That I should kill myself?'
'That you should kill yourself.' — 'That would be sin,
And God would punish me!' — 'And will not God
Punish for this?' She pauses; then whispers:
'No, no, He will forgive me, for He knows!'
I laughed aloud: 'And you,' she said, 'and you,
Who are so good, so noble' . . . 'Noble? Good?'
I laughed aloud, the great sob in my throat.
O my poor Darling, O my little lost Sheep
Of this vast flock that perishes alone
Out in the pitiless desert! — Yet she'd speak:
She'd ask me: she'd entreat: she'd demonstrate.
O I must not say that! I must believe!
Who made the sea, the leaves so green, the sky
So big and blue and pure above it all?
O my poor Darling, O my little lost Sheep,
Entreat no more and demonstrate no more;
For I believe there is a God, a God
Not in the heaven, the earth, or the waters; no,
But in the heart of Man, on the dear lips
Of angel Women, of heroic Men!
O hopeless Wanderer that would not stay,
('It is too late, I cannot rise again!')
O Saint of faith in love behind the veils,
('You must believe in God, for you are good!')
O Sister who made holy with your kiss,
Your kiss in that wet dark mild night of March,
There in the hideous infamous London streets,
My cheek, and made my soul a sacred place,
my poor Darling, O my little lost Sheep!
Scheme | abcdefgghigjklmnopqrostkquvWyhz1 2 dw3 sm4 5 6 5 7 u8 9 0 xw |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0011110111 1110111 1101010101 1101010111 01010001010 1011100111 0101111101 101011101 0011010111001 0100010101 0111110101 1101111111 1001110101 0100010101 1101011111 0111111101 01010111110 1111111111 1111111011 111111111 1111011111 0111010111 1011110110 1111011111 1101011101 1111110101 1101011011 11110111011 11111101 10010010111 11111110 1111111101 1101011101 1101010111 11110111011 11101011 1101110101 100100110101 1001111011 1101010101 1101001111 1111110101 1111010101 1101011111 1101110111 1101111111 100100100101 1101110101 1110111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,129 |
Words | 428 |
Sentences | 32 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 49 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,595 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 420 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:08 min read
- 92 Views
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"One Among So Many" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14039/one-among-so-many>.
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