Ada Cambridge

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A Wife's Protest Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDC EFGF HIJI KLIL MNON PQRQ LRSR RTUV WXYX ZA2B2A2 RFC2F D2E2F2E2 RG2H2G2 I2J2RJ2 K2L2M2E N2RO2R P2RRR RQ2R2Q2 S2T2U2V2 RI2W2I2 X2G2RG2 Y2Z2Q2A3 B3W2C3W2 FRD3R

A
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Like a white snowdrop in the springB
From child to girl I grewC
And thought no thought and heard no wordD
That was not pure and trueC
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And when I came to seventeenE
And life was fair and freeF
A suitor by my father's leaveG
Was brought one day to meF
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Make me the happiest man on earthH
He whispered soft and lowI
My mother told me it was rightJ
I was too young to knowI
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And then they twined my bridal wreathK
And placed it on my browL
It seems like fifty years agoI
And I am twenty nowL
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My star that barely rose is setM
My day of hope is doneN
My woman's life of love and joyO
Ere it has scarce begunN
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Hourly I die I do not liveP
Though still so young and strongQ
No dumb brute from his brother brutesR
Endures such wanton wrongQ
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A smouldering shame consumes me nowL
It poisons all my peaceR
An inward torment of reproachS
That never more will ceaseR
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O how my spirit shrinks and sinksR
Ere yet the light is goneT
What creeping terrors chill my bloodU
As each black night draws onV
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I lay me down upon my bedW
A prisoner on the rackX
And suffer dumbly as I mustY
Till the kind day comes backX
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Listening from heavy hour to hourZ
To hear the church clock tollA2
A guiltless prostitute in fleshB2
A murderess in soulA2
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Those church bells chimed the marriage chimesR
When he was wed to meF
And they must knell a funeral knellC2
Ere I again am freeF
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I did not hate him then in faithD2
I vowed the vow I willE2
Were I his mate and not his slaveF2
I could perform it stillE2
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But crushed in these relentless bondsR
I blindly helped to tieG2
With one way only for escapeH2
I pray that he may dieG2
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O to possess myself once moreI2
Myself so stained and maimedJ2
O to make pure these shuddering limbsR
That loveless lust has shamedJ2
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But beauty cannot be restoredK2
Where such a blight has beenL2
And all the rivers in the worldM2
Can never wash me cleanE
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I go to church I go to courtN2
No breath of scandal flawsR
The lustre of my fair reputeO2
For I obey the lawsR
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My ragged sister of the streetP2
Marked for the world's disgraceR
Scarce dares to lift her sinful eyesR
To the great lady's faceR
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She hides in shadows as I passR
On me the sunbeams shineQ2
Yet in the sight of God her stainR2
May be less black than mineQ2
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Maybe she gave her all for loveS2
And did not count the costT2
If so her crown of womanhoodU2
Was not ignobly lostV2
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Maybe she wears those wretched ragsR
And starves from door to doorI2
To keep her body for her ownW2
Since it may love no moreI2
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If so in spite of church and lawX2
She is more pure than IG2
The latchet of those broken shoesR
I am not fit to tieG2
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That hungry baby at her breastY2
Sign of her fallen stateZ2
Nature who would but mock at mineQ2
Has made legitimateA3
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Poor little love child spurned and scornedB3
Whom church and law disownW2
Thou hadst thy birthright when the seedC3
Of thy small life was sownW2
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O Nature give no child to meF
Whom Love must ne'er embraceR
Thou knowest I could not bear to lookD3
On its reproachful faceR

Ada Cambridge



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