A Forgiveness Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABC BDD EEFFGHIIJJCA IIKKLLMMN OP PLLQ L QRRSSLLA ATULLCCIILC LLLVVCCWWXXLLMMYYL LZZLLCCLLCCIICCA2A2B 2V C2 B2CD2 CIIIINE2F2F2LLG2G2LL LLLLLLD2D2 LLF2F2H2I2J2J2K2K2L2 L2M2M2CCLLLLVVLLN2N2 CCCCLLCCLLCCO2NP2 P2Q2XLICCCCCCLR2 LLLLLLLC L CS2S2CCZZZT2T2U2U2V2 V2LLD2D2CCLLLUUCCV2V 2W2W2X2X2 Y2Y2V2V2M UTZ2Z2A3A3V2V2V2V2B3 B3V2V2LLLLLLMM LLV2V2LLLLU2U2LLCC V2V2C3C3V2V2MMD3D3LL V2V2LLE3E3LLLLLLL2L2 V2V2CCK2K2TTLLV2V2MM LLCCLL LV2V2LLLLV2V2IILL LV2 V2L L LIILLLLL B3B3 V2L V2LLLLLLV2V2LLLLF3F3 IID2D2IIZZID2LLMMLLV 2V2LLIILLLLV2V2V2V2L LLLM MM V2V2LLM V2 V2L V2M V2V2LLLLLLM D2D2V2V2LV2 LV2V2LLLLMM

I am indeed the personage you know	A
As for my wife what happened long ago	A
You have a right to question me as I	B
Am bound to answer	C
	-
Son a fit reply	B
The monk half spoke half ground through his clenched teeth	D
At the confession grate I knelt beneath	D
	-
Thus then all happened Father Power and place	E
I had as still I have I ran life's race	E
With the whole world to see as only strains	F
His strength some athlete whose prodigious gains	F
Of good appall him happy to excess	G
Work freely done should balance happiness	H
Fully enjoyed and since beneath my roof	I
Housed she who made home heaven in heaven's behoof	I
I went forth every day and all day long	J
Worked for the world Look how the laborer's song	J
Cheers him Thus sang my soul at each sharp throe	C
Of laboring flesh and blood She loves me so	A
	-
One day perhaps such song so knit the nerve	I
That work grew play and vanished I deserve	I
Haply my heaven an hour before the time	K
I laughed as silverly the clockhouse chime	K
Surprised me passing through the postern gate	L
Not the main entry where the menials wait	L
And wonder why the world's affairs allow	M
The master sudden leisure That was how	M
I took the private garden way for once	N
	-
Forth from the alcove I saw start ensconce	O
Himself behind the porphyry vase a man	P
	-
My fancies in the natural order ran	P
A spy perhaps a foe in ambuscade	L
A thief more like a sweetheart of some maid	L
Who pitched on the alcove for tryst perhaps	Q
	-
Stand there I bid	L
	-
Whereat my man but wraps	Q
His face the closelier with uplifted arm	R
Whereon the cloak lies strikes in blind alarm	R
This and that pedestal as stretch and stoop	S
Now in now out of sight he thrids the group	S
Of statues marble god and goddess ranged	L
Each side the pathway till the gate's exchanged	L
For safety one step thence the street you know	A
	-
Thus far I followed with my gaze Then slow	A
Near on admiringly I breathed again	T
And back to that last fancy of the train	U
A danger risked for hope of just a word	L
With which of all my nest may be the bird	L
This poacher covets for her plumage pray	C
Carmen Juana Carmen seems too gay	C
For such adventure while Juana's grave	I
Would scorn the folly I applaud the knave	I
He had the eye could single from my brood	L
His proper fledgeling	C
	-
As I turned there stood	L
In face of me my wife stone still stone white	L
Whether one bound had brought her at first sight	L
Of what she judged the encounter sure to be	V
Next moment of the venturous man and me	V
Brought her to clutch and keep me from my prey	C
Whether impelled because her death no day	C
Could come so absolutely opportune	W
As now at joy's height like a year in June	W
Stayed at the fall of its first ripened rose	X
Or whether hungry for my hate who knows	X
Eager to end an irksome lie and taste	L
Our tingling true relation hate embraced	L
By hate one naked moment anyhow	M
There stone still stone white stood my wife but now	M
The woman who made heaven within my house	Y
Ay she who faced me was my very spouse	Y
As well as love you are to recollect	L
	-
Stay she said Keep at least one soul unspecked	L
With crime that's spotless hitherto your own	Z
Kill me who court the blessing who alone	Z
Was am and shall be guilty first to last	L
The man lay helpless in the toils I cast	L
About him helpless as the statue there	C
Against that strangling bell flower's bondage tear	C
Away and tread to dust the parasite	L
But do the passive marble no despite	L
I love him as I hate you Kill me Strike	C
At one blow both infinitudes alike	C
Out of existence hate and love Whence love	I
That's safe inside my heart nor will remove	I
For any searching of your steel I think	C
Whence hate The secret lay on lip at brink	C
Of speech in one fierce tremble to escape	A2
At every form wherein your love took shape	A2
At each new provocation of your kiss	B2
Kill me	V
	-
We went in	C2
	-
Next day after this	B2
I felt as if the speech might come I spoke	C
Easily after all	D2
	-
The lifted cloak	C
Was screen sufficient I concern myself	I
Hardly with laying hands on who for pelf	I
Whate'er the ignoble kind may prowl and brave	I
Cuffing and kicking proper to a knave	I
Detected by my household's vigilance	N
Enough of such As for my love romance	E2
I like our good Hidalgo rub my eyes	F2
And wake and wonder how the film could rise	F2
Which changed for me a barbers' basin straight	L
Into Mambrino's helm I hesitate	L
Nowise to say God's sacramental cup	G2
Why should I blame the brass which burnished up	G2
Will blaze to all but me as good as gold	L
To me a warning I was overbold	L
In judging metals The Hidalgo waked	L
Only to die if I remember staked	L
His life upon the basin's worth and lost	L
While I confess torpidity at most	L
In here and there a limb but lame and halt	L
Still should I work on still repair my fault	L
Ere I took rest in death no fear at all	D2
Now work no word before the curtain fall	D2
	-
The curtain That of death on life I meant	L
My word permissible in death's event	L
Would be truth soul to soul for other wise	F2
Day by day three years long there had to rise	F2
And night by night to fall upon our stage	H2
Ours doomed to public play by heritage	I2
Another curtain when the world perforce	J2
Our critical assembly in due course	J2
Came and went witnessing gave praise or blame	K2
To art mimetic It had spoiled the game	K2
If suffered to set foot behind our scene	L2
The world had witnessed how stage king and queen	L2
Gallant and lady but a minute since	M2
Enarming each the other would evince	M2
No sign of recognition as they took	C
His way and her way to whatever nook	C
Waited them in the darkness either side	L
Of that bright stage where lately groom and bride	L
Had fired the audience to a frenzy fit	L
Of sympathetic rapture every whit	L
Earned as the curtain fell on her and me	V
Actors Three whole years nothing was to see	V
But calm and concord where a speech was due	L
There came the speech when the smiles were wanted too	L
Smiles were as ready In a place like mine	N2
Where foreign and domestic cares combine	N2
There's audience every day and all day long	C
But finally the last of the whole throng	C
Who linger lets one see his back For her	C
Why liberty and liking I aver	C
Liking and liberty For me I breathed	L
Let my face rest from every wrinkle wreathed	L
Smile like about the mouth unlearned my task	C
Of personation till next day bade mask	C
And quietly betook me from that world	L
To the real world not pageant there unfurled	L
In work its wings my soul the fretted power	C
Three years I worked each minute of each hour	C
Not claimed by acting work I may dispense	O2
With talk about since work in evidence	N
Perhaps in history who knows or cares	P2
	-
After three years this way all unawares	P2
Our acting ended She and I at close	Q2
Of a loud night feast led between two rows	X
Of bending male and female loyalty	L
Our lord the king down staircase while held high	I
At arm's length did the twisted tapers' flare	C
Herald his passage from our palace where	C
Such visiting left glory evermore	C
Again the ascent in public till at door	C
As we two stood by the saloon now blank	C
And disencumbered of its guests there sank	C
A whisper in my ear so low and yet	L
So unmistakable	R2
	-
I half forget	L
The chamber you repair to and I want	L
Occasion for one short word if you grant	L
That grace within a certain room yon called	L
Our 'Study ' for you wrote there while I scrawled	L
Some paper full of faces for my sport	L
That room I can remember Just one short	L
Word with you there for the remembrance' sake	C
	-
Follow me thither I I replied	L
	-
We break	C
The gloom a little as with guiding lamp	S2
I lead the way leave warmth and cheer by damp	S2
Blind disused serpentining ways afar	C
From where the habitable chambers are	C
Ascend descend stairs tunnelled through the stone	Z
Always in silence till I reach the lone	Z
Chamber sepulchred for my very own	Z
Out of the palace quarry When a boy	T2
Here was my fortress stronghold from annoy	T2
Proof positive of ownership in youth	U2
I garnered up my gleanings here uncouth	U2
But precious relics of vain hopes vain fears	V2
Finally this became in after years	V2
My closet of entrenchment to withstand	L
Invasion of the foe on every hand	L
The multifarious herd in bower and hall	D2
State room rooms whatsoe'er the style which call	D2
On masters to be mindful that before	C
Men they must look like men and something more	C
Here when our lord the king's bestowment ceased	L
To deck me on the day that golden fleeced	L
I touched ambition's height 'twas here released	L
From glory always symbolled by a chain	U
No sooner was I privileged to gain	U
My secret domicile than glad I flung	C
That last toy on the table gazed where hung	C
On hook my father's gift the arquebus	V2
And asked myself Shall I envisage thus	V2
The new prize and the old prize when I reach	W2
Another year's experience own that each	W2
Equalled advantage sportsman's states man's tool	X2
That brought me down an eagle this a fool	X2
	-
Into which room on entry I set down	Y2
The lamp and turning saw whose rustled gown	Y2
Had told me my wife followed pace for pace	V2
Each of us looked the other in the face	V2
She spoke Since I could die now	M
	-
To explain	U
Why that first struck me know not once again	T
Since the adventure at the porphyry's edge	Z2
Three years before which sundered like a wedge	Z2
Her soul from mine though daily smile to smile	A3
We stood before the public all the while	A3
Not once bad I distinguished in that face	V2
I paid observance to the faintest trace	V2
Of feature more than requisite for eyes	V2
To do their duty by and recognize	V2
So did I force mine to obey my will	B3
And pry no further There exists such skill	B3
Those know who need it What physician shrinks	V2
From needful contact with a corpse He drinks	V2
No plague so long as thirst for knowledge not	L
An idler impulse prompts inquiry What	L
And will you disbelieve in power to bid	L
Our spirit back to bounds as though we chid	L
A child from scrutiny that's just and right	L
In manhood Sense not soul accomplished sight	L
Reported daily she it was not how	M
Nor why a change had come to cheek and brow	M
	-
Since I could die now of the truth concealed	L
Yet dare not must not die so seems revealed	L
The Virgin's mind to me for death means peace	V2
Wherein no lawful part have I whose lease	V2
Of life and punishment the truth avowed	L
May haply lengthen let me push the shroud	L
Away that steals to muffle ere is just	L
My penance fire in snow I dare I must	L
Live by avowal of the truth this truth	U2
I loved you Thanks for the fresh serpent's tooth	U2
That by a prompt new pang more exquisite	L
Than all preceding torture proves me right	L
I loved you yet I lost you May I go	C
Burn to the ashes now my shame you know	C
	-
I think there never was such how express	V2
Horror coquetting with voluptuousness	V2
As in those arms of Eastern workmanship	C3
Yataghan kandjar things that rend and rip	C3
Gash rough slash smooth help hate so many ways	V2
Yet ever keep a beauty that betrays	V2
Love still at work with the artificer	M
Throughout his quaint devising Why prefer	M
Except for love's sake that a blade should writhe	D3
And bicker like a flame now play the scythe	D3
As if some broad neck tempted now contract	L
And needle off into a fineness lacked	L
For just that puncture which the heart demands	V2
Then such adornment Wherefore need our hands	V2
Enclose not ivory alone nor gold	L
Roughened for use but jewels Nay behold	L
Fancy my favorite which I seem to grasp	E3
While I describe the luxury No asp	E3
Is diapered more delicate round throat	L
Than this below the handle These denote	L
These mazy lines meandering to end	L
Only in flesh they open what intend	L
They else but water purlings pale contrast	L
With the life crimson where they blend at last	L
And mark the handle's dim pellucid green	L2
Carved the hard jadestone as you pinch a bean	L2
Into a sort of parrot bird He pecks	V2
A grape bunch his two eyes are ruby specks	V2
Pure from the mine seen this way glassy blank	C
But turn them lo the inmost fire that shrank	C
From sparkling sends a red dart right to aim	K2
Why did I choose such toys Perhaps the game	K2
Of peaceful men is warlike just as men	T
War wearied get amusement from that pen	T
And paper we grow sick of statesfolk tired	L
Of merely when such measures are required	L
Dealing out doom to people by three words	V2
A signature and seal we play with swords	V2
Suggestive of quick process That is how	M
I came to like the toys described you now	M
Store of which glittered on the walls and strewed	L
The table even while my wife pursued	L
Her purpose to its ending Now you know	C
This shame my three years' torture let me go	C
Burn to the very ashes You I lost	L
Yet you I loved	L
	-
The thing I pity most	L
In men is action prompted by surprise	V2
Of anger men nay bulls whose onset lies	V2
At instance of the firework and the goad	L
Once the foe prostrate trampling once bestowed	L
Prompt follows placability regret	L
Atonement Trust me blood warmth never yet	L
Betokened strong will As no leap of pulse	V2
Pricked me that first time so did none convulse	V2
My veins at this occasion for resolve	I
Had that devolved which did not then devolve	I
Upon me I had done what now to do	L
Was quietly apparent	L
	-
Tell me who	L
The man was crouching by the porphyry vase	V2
	-
No never All was folly in his case	V2
All guilt in mine I tempted he complied	L
	-
And yet you loved me	L
	-
Loved you Double dyed	L
In folly and in guilt I thought you gave	I
Your heart and soul away from me to slave	I
At statecraft Since my right in you seemed lost	L
I stung myself to teach you to your cost	L
What you rejected could be prized beyond	L
Life heaven by the first fool I threw a fond	L
Look on a fatal word to	L
	-
And you still	B3
Love me Do I conjecture well or ill	B3
	-
Conjecture well or ill I had three years	V2
To spend in learning you	L
	-
We both are peers	V2
In knowledge therefore since three years are spent	L
Ere thus much of yourself I learn who went	L
Back to the house that day and brought my mind	L
To bear upon your action uncombined	L
Motive from motive till the dross deprived	L
Of every purer particle survived	L
At last in native simple hideousness	V2
Utter contemptibility nor less	V2
Nor more Contemptibility exempt	L
How could I from its proper due contempt	L
I have too much despised you to divert	L
My life from its set course by help or hurt	L
Of your all despicable life perturb	F3
The calm I work in by men's mouths to curb	F3
Which at such news were clamorous enough	I
Men's eyes to shut before my broidered stuff	I
With the huge hole there my emblazoned wall	D2
Blank where a scutcheon hung by worse than all	D2
Each day's procession my paraded life	I
Robbed and impoverished through the wanting wife	I
Now that my life which means my work was grown	Z
Riches indeed Once just this worth alone	Z
Seemed work to have that profit gained thereby	I
Of good and praise would how rewardingly	D2
Fall at your feet a crown I hoped to cast	L
Before your love my love should crown at last	L
No love remaining to cast crown before	M
My love stopped work now but contempt the more	M
Impelled me task as ever head and hand	L
Because the very fiends weave ropes of sand	L
Rather than taste pure hell in idleness	V2
Therefore I kept my memory down by stress	V2
Of daily work I had no mind to stay	L
For the world's wonder at the wife away	L
Oh it was easy all of it believe	I
For I despised you But your words retrieve	I
Importantly the past No hate assumed	L
The mask of love at any time There gloomed	L
A moment when love took hate's semblance urged	L
By causes you declare but love's self purged	L
Away a fancied wrong I did both loves	V2
Yours and my own by no hate's help it proves	V2
Purgation was attempted Then you rise	V2
High by how many a grade I did despise	V2
I do but hate you Let hate's punishment	L
Replace contempt's First step to which ascent	L
Write down your own words I re utter you	L
'I loved my husband and I hated who	L
He was I took up as my first chance mere	M
Mud ball to fling and make love foul with '	-
Here	M
Lies paper	M
	-
Would my blood for ink suffice	V2
It may this minion from a land of spice	V2
Silk feather every bird of jewelled breast	L
This poniard's beauty ne'er so lightly prat	L
Above your heart there	M
	-
Thus	V2
	-
It flows I see	V2
Dip there the point and write	L
	-
Dictate to me	V2
Nay I remember	M
	-
And she wrote the words	V2
I read them Then Since love in you affords	V2
License for hate in me to quench I say	L
Contempt why hate itself has passed away	L
In vengeance foreign to contempt Depart	L
Peacefully to that death which Eastern art	L
Imbued this weapon with if tales be true	L
Love will succeed to hate I pardon you	L
Dead in our chamber	M
	-
True as truth the tale	D2
She died ere morning then I saw how pale	D2
Her cheek was ere it wore day's paint disguise	V2
And what a hollow darkened 'neath her eyes	V2
Now that I used my own She sleeps as erst	L
Beloved in this your church ay yours	V2
	-
Immersed	L
In thought so deeply Father Sad perhaps	V2
For whose sake hers or mine or his who wraps	V2
Still plain I seem to see about his head	L
The idle cloak about his heart instead	L
Of cuirass some fond hope he may elude	L
My vengeance in the cloister's solitude	L
Hardly I think As little helped his brow	M
The cloak then Father as your grate helps now	M

Robert Browning

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