Any Wife To Any Husband Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDDC A EEFGHF A IIJKKJ I LLMNNM I OOAPPA A QQRCCR A SSTOOT A AAUVVU P WWXYYX P ZZA2OOA2 P B2B2C2D2D2C2 P JJE2PPE2 P F2F2YTTY A G2H2PI2I2P A I2I2J2I2I2J2 A I2I2PK2K2P A VVBL2L2B A I2I2M2I2I2M2 P F2J2I2PPI2 P JJI2N2N2I2 P I2I2PI2I2PI | A |
- | |
My love this is the bitterest that thou | B |
Who art all truth and who dost love me now | B |
As thine eyes say as thy voice breaks to say | C |
Shouldst love so truly and couldst love me still | D |
A whole long life through had but love its will | D |
Would death that leads me from thee brook delay | C |
- | |
II | A |
- | |
I have but to be by thee and thy hand | E |
Would never let mine go thy heart withstand | E |
The beating of my heart to reach its place | F |
When should I look for thee and feel thee gone | G |
When cry for the old comfort and find none | H |
Never I know Thy soul is in thy face | F |
- | |
III | A |
- | |
Oh I should fade 'tis willed so might I save | I |
Galdly I would whatever beauty gave | I |
Joy to thy sense for that was precious too | J |
It is not to be granted But the soul | K |
Whence the love comes all ravage leaves that whole | K |
Vainly the flesh fades soul makes all things new | J |
- | |
IV | I |
- | |
And 'twould not be because my eye grew dim | L |
Thou couldst not find the love there thanks to Him | L |
Who never is dishonoured in the spark | M |
He gave us from his fire of fires and bade | N |
Remember whence it sprang nor be afraid | N |
While that burns on though all the rest grow dark | M |
- | |
V | I |
- | |
So how thou wouldst be perfect white and clean | O |
Outside as inside soul and soul's demesne | O |
Alike this body given to show it by | A |
Oh three parts through the worst of life's abyss | P |
What plaudits from the next world after this | P |
Couldst thou repeat a stroke and gain the sky | A |
- | |
VI | A |
- | |
And is it not the bitterer to think | Q |
That disengage our hands and thou wilt sink | Q |
Although thy love was love in very deed | R |
I know that nature Pass a festive day | C |
Thou dost not throw its relic flower away | C |
Nor bid its music's loitering echo speed | R |
- | |
VII | A |
- | |
Thou let'st the stranger's glove lie where it fell | S |
If old things remain old things all is well | S |
For thou art grateful as becomes man best | T |
And hadst thou only heard me play one tune | O |
Or viewed me from a window not so soon | O |
With thee would such things fade as with the rest | T |
- | |
VIII | A |
- | |
I seem to see we meet and part 'tis brief | A |
The book I opened keeps a folded leaf | A |
The very chair I sat on breaks the rank | U |
That is a portrait of me on the wall | V |
Three lines my face comes at so slight a call | V |
And for all this one little hour's to thank | U |
- | |
IX | P |
- | |
But now because the hour through years was fixed | W |
Because our inmost beings met amd mixed | W |
Because thou once hast loved me wilt thou dare | X |
Say to thy soul and Who may list beside | Y |
Therefore she is immortally my bride | Y |
Chance cannot change that love nor time impair | X |
- | |
X | P |
- | |
So what if in the dusk of life that's left | Z |
I a tired traveller of my sun bereft | Z |
Look from my path when mimicking the same | A2 |
The fire fly glimpses past me come and gone | O |
Where was it till the sunset where anon | O |
It will be at the sunrise what's to blame | A2 |
- | |
XI | P |
- | |
Is it so helpful to thee canst thou take | B2 |
The mimic up nor for the true thing's sake | B2 |
Put gently by such efforts at at beam | C2 |
Is the remainder of the way so long | D2 |
Thou need'st the little solace thou the strong | D2 |
Watch out thy watch let weak ones doze and dream | C2 |
- | |
XII | P |
- | |
Ah but the fresher faces Is it true | J |
Thou'lt ask some eyes are beautiful and new | J |
Some hair how can one choose but grasp such wealth | E2 |
And if a man would press his lips to lips | P |
Fresh as the wilding hedge rose cup there slips | P |
The dew drop out of must it be by stealth | E2 |
- | |
XIII | P |
- | |
It cannot change the love kept still for Her | F2 |
Much more than such a picture to prefer | F2 |
Passing a day with to a room's bare side | Y |
The painted form takes nothing she possessed | T |
Yet while the Titian's Venus lies at rest | T |
A man looks Once more what is there to chide | Y |
- | |
XIV | A |
- | |
So must I see from where I sit and watch | G2 |
My own self sell myself my hand attach | H2 |
Its warrant to the very thefts from me | P |
Thy singleness of soul that made me proud | I2 |
Thy purity of heart I loved aloud | I2 |
Thy man's truth I was bold to bid God see | P |
- | |
XV | A |
- | |
Love so then if thou wilt Give all thou canst | I2 |
Away to the new faces disentranced | I2 |
Say it and think it obdurate no more | J2 |
Re issue looks and words from the old mint | I2 |
Pass them afresh no matter whose the print | I2 |
Image and superscription once they bore | J2 |
- | |
XVI | A |
- | |
Re coin thyself and give it them to spend | I2 |
It all comes to the same thing at the end | I2 |
Since mine thou wast mine art and mine shalt be | P |
Faithful or faithless sealing up the sum | K2 |
Or lavish of my treasure thou must come | K2 |
Back to the heart's place here I keep for thee | P |
- | |
XVII | A |
- | |
Only why should it be with stain at all | V |
Why must I 'twixt the leaves of coronal | V |
Put any kiss of pardon on thy brow | B |
Why need the other women know so much | L2 |
And talk together Such the look and such | L2 |
The smile he used to love with then as now | B |
- | |
XVIII | A |
- | |
Might I die last and shew thee Should I find | I2 |
Such hardship in the few years left behind | I2 |
If free to take and light my lamp and go | M2 |
Into thy tomb and shut the door and sit | I2 |
Seeing thy face on those four sides of it | I2 |
The better that they are so blank I know | M2 |
- | |
XIX | P |
- | |
Why time was what I wanted to turn o'er | F2 |
Within my mind each look get more and more | J2 |
By heart each word too much to learn at first | I2 |
And join thee all the fitter for the pause | P |
'Neath the low door way's lintel That were cause | P |
For lingering though thou called'st If I durst | I2 |
- | |
XX | P |
- | |
And yet thou art the nobler of us two | J |
What dare I dream of that thou canst not do | J |
Outstripping my ten small steps with one stride | I2 |
I'll say then here's a trial and a task | N2 |
Is it to bear if easy I'll not ask | N2 |
Though love fail I can trust on in thy pride | I2 |
- | |
XXI | P |
- | |
Pride when those eyes forestall the life behind | I2 |
The death I have to go through when I find | I2 |
Now that I want thy help most all of thee | P |
What did I fear Thy love shall hold me fast | I2 |
Until the little minute's sleep is past | I2 |
And I wake saved And yet it will not be | P |
Robert Browning
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Any Wife To Any Husband poem by Robert Browning
Best Poems of Robert Browning