Mésalliance
I am troubled to-night with a curious pain;It is not of the flesh, it is not of the brain,Nor yet of a heart that is breaking:But down still deeper, and out of sight--In the place where the soul and the body unite--There lies the seat of the aching.
They have been lovers in days gone by;But the soul is fickle, and longs to flyFrom the fettering mesalliance:And she tears at the bonds which are binding her so,And pleads with the body to let her go,But he will not yield compliance.
For the body loves, as he loved in the past,When he wedded the soul; and he holds her fast,And swears that he will not loose her;That he will keep her and hide her awayFor ever and ever and for a dayFrom the arms of Death, the seducer.
Ah! this is the strife that is wearying me--The strife 'twixt a soul that would be freeAnd a body that will not let her.And I say to my soul, "Be calm, and wait;For I tell ye truly that soon or lateYe surely shall drop each fetter."
And I say to the body, "Be kind, I pray;For the soul is not of thy mortal clay,But is formed in spirit fashion."And still through the hours of the solemn nightI can hear my sad soul's plea for flight,And my body's reply of passion.
Words in this poem
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- seducer n.
- One who, or that which, seduces; specifically, one who prevails over the chastity of a woman by enticements and persuasions.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mésalliance is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mésalliance, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/m-salliance.html, id L22187.
Form and metre
Mésalliance is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABCCB painA · brainA · breakingB · sightC · uniteC · achingB
- 2 AABCCB byA · flyA · mesallianceB · soC · goC · complianceB
- 3 AA-BB- pastA · fastA · her · awayB · dayB · seducer
- 4 AA-BB- meA · freeA · her · waitB · lateB · fetter
- 5 AABCCB prayA · clayA · fashionB · nightC · flightC · passionB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I am troubled to-night with a curious pain; | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| It is not of the flesh, it is not of the brain, | 12 | ············ |
| Nor yet of a heart that is breaking: | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| But down still deeper, and out of sight-- | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| In the place where the soul and the body unite-- | 12 | ········/˘/· |
| There lies the seat of the aching. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| They have been lovers in days gone by; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| But the soul is fickle, and longs to fly | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| From the fettering mesalliance: | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| And she tears at the bonds which are binding her so, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| And pleads with the body to let her go, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| But he will not yield compliance. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| For the body loves, as he loved in the past, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| When he wedded the soul; and he holds her fast, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| And swears that he will not loose her; | 8 | ········ |
| That he will keep her and hide her away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For ever and ever and for a day | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| From the arms of Death, the seducer. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Ah! this is the strife that is wearying me-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The strife 'twixt a soul that would be free | 9 | ········· |
| And a body that will not let her. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And I say to my soul, "Be calm, and wait; | 10 | ·········· |
| For I tell ye truly that soon or late | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Ye surely shall drop each fetter." | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| And I say to the body, "Be kind, I pray; | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| For the soul is not of thy mortal clay, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But is formed in spirit fashion." | 9 | ···˘·/˘/˘ |
| And still through the hours of the solemn night | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| I can hear my sad soul's plea for flight, | 9 | ········· |
| And my body's reply of passion. | 9 | ··/˘˘/·/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.