Only A Curl. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBBC ADEDDE AFGFFG GHIHJI GKLKKL GGMGGN GOPOOP GQRQQR JGSGGS JTUTTU JVWVVW JJGJJG JXJXXJ GRERRE

IA
FRIENDS of faces unknown and a landB
Unvisited over the seaC
Who tell me how lonely you standB
With a single gold curl in the handB
Held up to be looked at by meC
-
-
IIA
While you ask me to ponder and sayD
What a father and mother can doE
With the bright fellow locks put awayD
Out of reach beyond kiss in the clayD
Where the violets press nearer than youE
-
-
IIIA
Shall I speak like a poet or runF
Into weak woman's tears for reliefG
Oh children I never lost oneF
Yet my arm 's round my own little sonF
And Love knows the secret of GriefG
-
-
IVG
And I feel what it must be and isH
When God draws a new angel soI
Through the house of a man up to HisH
With a murmur of music you missJ
And a rapture of light you forgoI
-
-
VG
How you think staring on at the doorK
Where the face of your angel flashed inL
That its brightness familiar beforeK
Burns off from you ever the moreK
For the dark of your sorrow and sinL
-
-
VIG
God lent him and takes him ' you sighG
Nay there let me break with your painM
God 's generous in giving say IG
And the thing which He gives I denyG
That He ever can take back againN
-
-
VIIG
He gives what He gives I appealO
To all who bear babes in the hourP
When the veil of the body we feelO
Rent round us while torments revealO
The motherhood's advent in powerP
-
-
VIIIG
And the babe cries has each of us knownQ
By apocalypse God being thereR
Full in nature the child is our ownQ
Life of life love of love moan of moanQ
Through all changes all times everywhereR
-
-
IXJ
He 's ours and for ever BelieveG
O father O mother look backS
To the first love's assurance To giveG
Means with God not to tempt or deceiveG
With a cup thrust in Benjamin's sackS
-
-
XJ
He gives what He gives Be contentT
He resumes nothing given be sureU
God lend Where the usurers lentT
In His temple indignant He wentT
And scourged away all those impureU
-
-
XIJ
He lends not but gives to the endV
As He loves to the end If it seemW
That He draws back a gift comprehendV
'Tis to add to it rather amendV
And finish it up to your dreamW
-
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XIIJ
Or keep as a mother will toysJ
Too costly though given by herselfG
Till the room shall be stiller from noiseJ
And the children more fit for such joysJ
Kept over their heads on the shelfG
-
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XIIIJ
So look up friends you who indeedX
Have possessed in your house a sweet pieceJ
Of the Heaven which men strive for must needX
Be more earnest than others are speedX
Where they loiter persist where they ceaseJ
-
-
XIVG
You know how one angel smiles thereR
Then weep not 'Tis easy for youE
To be drawn by a single gold hairR
Of that curl from earth's storm and despairR
To the safe place above us AdieuE

Elizabeth Barrett Browning



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