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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #6
The narrator recalls his adolescence, now about her ill wife.
Agnes is his old friend.
Chapter 53 ANOTHER RETROSPECT
.................................
It is night; and I am with her still. Agnes has arrived; has been among us for a whole day and an evening. She, my aunt, and I, have sat with Dora since the morning, all together. We have not talked much, but Dora has been perfectly contented and cheerful. We are now alone.
Do I know, now, that my child-wife will soon leave me? They have told me so; they have told me nothing new to my thoughts- but I am far from sure that I have taken that truth to heart. I cannot master it. I have withdrawn by myself, many times today, to weep. I have remembered Who wept for a parting between the living and the dead. I have bethought me of all that gracious and compassionate history. I have tried to resign myself, and to console myself; and that, I hope, I may have done imperfectly; but what I cannot firmly settle in my mind is, that the end will absolutely come. I hold her hand in mine, I hold her heart in mine, I see her love for me, alive in all its strength. I cannot shut out a pale lingering shadow of belief that she will be spared.
'I am going to speak to you, Doady. I am going to say something I have often thought of saying, lately. You won't mind?' with a gentle look.
'Mind, my darling?'
'Because I don't know what you will think, or what you may have thought sometimes. Perhaps you have often thought the same. Doady, dear, I am afraid I was too young.'
I lay my face upon the pillow by her, and she looks into my eyes, and speaks very softly. Gradually, as she goes on, I feel, with a stricken heart, that she is speaking of herself as past.
'I am afraid, dear, I was too young. I don't mean in years only, but in experience, and thoughts, and everything. I was such a silly little creature! I am afraid it would have been better, if we had only loved each other as a boy and girl, and forgotten it. I have begun to think I was not fit to be a wife.'
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know what "me of" means.
2. I'd like to know if "that" is the object of "may have done."
3. And I'd like to know why it is "mean in years," not "means by years."
Thank you in advance for your help.
Agnes is his old friend.
Chapter 53 ANOTHER RETROSPECT
.................................
It is night; and I am with her still. Agnes has arrived; has been among us for a whole day and an evening. She, my aunt, and I, have sat with Dora since the morning, all together. We have not talked much, but Dora has been perfectly contented and cheerful. We are now alone.
Do I know, now, that my child-wife will soon leave me? They have told me so; they have told me nothing new to my thoughts- but I am far from sure that I have taken that truth to heart. I cannot master it. I have withdrawn by myself, many times today, to weep. I have remembered Who wept for a parting between the living and the dead. I have bethought me of all that gracious and compassionate history. I have tried to resign myself, and to console myself; and that, I hope, I may have done imperfectly; but what I cannot firmly settle in my mind is, that the end will absolutely come. I hold her hand in mine, I hold her heart in mine, I see her love for me, alive in all its strength. I cannot shut out a pale lingering shadow of belief that she will be spared.
'I am going to speak to you, Doady. I am going to say something I have often thought of saying, lately. You won't mind?' with a gentle look.
'Mind, my darling?'
'Because I don't know what you will think, or what you may have thought sometimes. Perhaps you have often thought the same. Doady, dear, I am afraid I was too young.'
I lay my face upon the pillow by her, and she looks into my eyes, and speaks very softly. Gradually, as she goes on, I feel, with a stricken heart, that she is speaking of herself as past.
'I am afraid, dear, I was too young. I don't mean in years only, but in experience, and thoughts, and everything. I was such a silly little creature! I am afraid it would have been better, if we had only loved each other as a boy and girl, and forgotten it. I have begun to think I was not fit to be a wife.'
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know what "me of" means.
2. I'd like to know if "that" is the object of "may have done."
3. And I'd like to know why it is "mean in years," not "means by years."
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
1. "me of" is not a phrase; "me" is the object of "bethought" and "of" goes with "all that gracious and compassionate history". "to bethink one(self) of something" is an archaic pattern, meaning to think or reflect upon that thing.
- 1.
- "me of" is not a phrase; "me" is the object of "bethought" and "of" goes with "all that gracious and compassionate history".
- "to bethink one(self) of something" is an archaic pattern, meaning to think or reflect upon that thing.
- 2.
- Yes.
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1 Answers
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1. "me of" is not a phrase; "me" is the object of "bethought" and "of" goes with "all that gracious and compassionate history". "to bethink one(self) of something" is an archaic pattern, meaning to think or reflect upon that thing.
2. Yes.
3. "mean" agrees with the subject "I". He is saying that he doesn't mean "too young" in years only, i.e. he is not talking only about whether
2. Yes.
3. "mean" agrees with the subject "I". He is saying that he doesn't mean "too young" in years only, i.e. he is not talking only about whether
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