Counting the Beats
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
You, love, and I,
(He whispers) you and I,
And if no more than only you and I
What care you or I ?
Counting the beats,
Counting the slow heart beats,
The bleeding to death of time in slow heart beats,
Wakeful they lie.
Cloudless day,
Night, and a cloudless day,
Yet the huge storm will burst upon their heads one day
From a bitter sky.
Where shall we be,
(She whispers) where shall we be,
When death strikes home, O where then shall we be
Who were you and I ?
Not there but here,
(He whispers) only here,
As we are, here, together, now and here,
Always you and I.
Counting the beats,
Counting the slow heart beats,
The bleeding to death of time in slow heart beats,
Wakeful they lie.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 362 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | aaaa BBBA ccca ddda eeea BBBA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 668 |
Words | 134 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Counting the Beats" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/31111/counting-the-beats>.
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