Only A Curl. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBBC ADEDDE AFGFFG GHIHJI GKLKKL GGMGGN GOPOOP GQRQQR JGSGGS JTUTTU JVWVVW JJGJJG JXJXXJ GRERREI | A |
FRIENDS of faces unknown and a land | B |
Unvisited over the sea | C |
Who tell me how lonely you stand | B |
With a single gold curl in the hand | B |
Held up to be looked at by me | C |
- | |
- | |
II | A |
While you ask me to ponder and say | D |
What a father and mother can do | E |
With the bright fellow locks put away | D |
Out of reach beyond kiss in the clay | D |
Where the violets press nearer than you | E |
- | |
- | |
III | A |
Shall I speak like a poet or run | F |
Into weak woman's tears for relief | G |
Oh children I never lost one | F |
Yet my arm 's round my own little son | F |
And Love knows the secret of Grief | G |
- | |
- | |
IV | G |
And I feel what it must be and is | H |
When God draws a new angel so | I |
Through the house of a man up to His | H |
With a murmur of music you miss | J |
And a rapture of light you forgo | I |
- | |
- | |
V | G |
How you think staring on at the door | K |
Where the face of your angel flashed in | L |
That its brightness familiar before | K |
Burns off from you ever the more | K |
For the dark of your sorrow and sin | L |
- | |
- | |
VI | G |
God lent him and takes him ' you sigh | G |
Nay there let me break with your pain | M |
God 's generous in giving say I | G |
And the thing which He gives I deny | G |
That He ever can take back again | N |
- | |
- | |
VII | G |
He gives what He gives I appeal | O |
To all who bear babes in the hour | P |
When the veil of the body we feel | O |
Rent round us while torments reveal | O |
The motherhood's advent in power | P |
- | |
- | |
VIII | G |
And the babe cries has each of us known | Q |
By apocalypse God being there | R |
Full in nature the child is our own | Q |
Life of life love of love moan of moan | Q |
Through all changes all times everywhere | R |
- | |
- | |
IX | J |
He 's ours and for ever Believe | G |
O father O mother look back | S |
To the first love's assurance To give | G |
Means with God not to tempt or deceive | G |
With a cup thrust in Benjamin's sack | S |
- | |
- | |
X | J |
He gives what He gives Be content | T |
He resumes nothing given be sure | U |
God lend Where the usurers lent | T |
In His temple indignant He went | T |
And scourged away all those impure | U |
- | |
- | |
XI | J |
He lends not but gives to the end | V |
As He loves to the end If it seem | W |
That He draws back a gift comprehend | V |
'Tis to add to it rather amend | V |
And finish it up to your dream | W |
- | |
- | |
XII | J |
Or keep as a mother will toys | J |
Too costly though given by herself | G |
Till the room shall be stiller from noise | J |
And the children more fit for such joys | J |
Kept over their heads on the shelf | G |
- | |
- | |
XIII | J |
So look up friends you who indeed | X |
Have possessed in your house a sweet piece | J |
Of the Heaven which men strive for must need | X |
Be more earnest than others are speed | X |
Where they loiter persist where they cease | J |
- | |
- | |
XIV | G |
You know how one angel smiles there | R |
Then weep not 'Tis easy for you | E |
To be drawn by a single gold hair | R |
Of that curl from earth's storm and despair | R |
To the safe place above us Adieu | E |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Only A Curl. poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Best Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning