Only A Woman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDDDEEEFFFEEEEEE EEE GGGHBIJJJKKKEEELLLFF FEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMNNNO OOEEEPPPQQQ| She loves with love that cannot tire | A |
| And if ah woe she loves alone | B |
| Through passionate duty love flames higher | A |
| As grass grows taller round a stone | B |
| Coventry Patmore | C |
| SO the truth's out I 'll grasp it like a snake | D |
| It will not slay me My heart shall not break | D |
| Awhile if only for the children's sake | D |
| For his too somewhat Let him stand unblamed | E |
| None say he gave me less than honor claimed | E |
| Except one trifle scarcely worth being named | E |
| The heart That 's gone The corrupt dead might be | F |
| As easily raised up breathing fair to see | F |
| As he could bring his whole heart back to me | F |
| I never sought him in coquettish sport | E |
| Or courted him as silly maidens court | E |
| And wonder when the longed for prize falls short | E |
| I only loved him any woman would | E |
| But shut my love up till he came and sued | E |
| Then poured it o'er his dry life like a flood | E |
| I was so happy I could make him blest | E |
| So happy that I was his first and best | E |
| As he mine when he took me to his breast | E |
| - | |
| Ah me If only then he had been true | G |
| If for one little year a month or two | G |
| He had given me love for love as was my due | G |
| Or had he told me ere the deed was done | H |
| He only raised me to his heart's dear throne | B |
| Poor substitute because his queen was gone | I |
| O had he whispered when his sweetest kiss | J |
| Was warm upon my mouth in fancied bliss | J |
| He had kissed another woman even as this | J |
| It were less bitter Sometimes I could weep | K |
| To be thus cheated like a child asleep | K |
| Were not my anguish far too dry and deep | K |
| So I built my house upon another's ground | E |
| Mocked with a heart just caught at the rebound | E |
| A cankered thing that looked so firm and sound | E |
| And when that heart grew colder colder still | L |
| I ignorant tried all duties to fulfil | L |
| Blaming my foolish pain exacting will | L |
| All anything but him It was to be | F |
| The full draught others drink up carelessly | F |
| Was made this bitter Tantalus cup for me | F |
| I say again he gives me all I claimed | E |
| I and my children never shall be shamed | E |
| He is a just man he will live unblamed | E |
| Only O God O God to cry for bread | E |
| And get a stone Daily to lay my head | E |
| Upon a bosom where the old love's dead | E |
| Dead Fool It never lived It only stirred | E |
| Galvanic like an hour cold corpse None heard | E |
| So let me bury it without a word | E |
| He 'll keep that other woman from my sight | E |
| I know not if her face be foul or bright | E |
| I only know that it was his delight | E |
| As his was mine I only know he stands | M |
| Pale at the touch of their long severed hands | M |
| Then to a flickering smile his lips commands | M |
| Lest I should grieve or jealous anger show | N |
| He need not When the ship 's gone down I trow | N |
| We little reck whatever wind may blow | N |
| And so my silent moan begins and ends | O |
| No world's laugh or world's taunt not pity of friends | O |
| Or sneer of foes with this my torment blends | O |
| None knows none heeds I have a little pride | E |
| Enough to stand up wife like by his side | E |
| With the same smile as when I was a bride | E |
| And I shall take his children to my arms | P |
| They will not miss these fading worthless charms | P |
| Their kiss ah unlike his all pain disarms | P |
| And haply as the solemn years go by | Q |
| He will think sometimes with regretful sigh | Q |
| The other woman was less true than I | Q |
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
(1)
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