In A Balcony Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B B C D C B EEFGHIFJKL E E B MNOPQCNR E STEUVWXYPVPZPEA2B2FV EP P P E C2KE P K E PPNCEP P P E LD2PD2EE2PEPC2F2EPEG 2PH2G2I2J2PEE2SP P K2P E UL2XPCEM2PN2O2IP2ZPP FEEC2TP P Q2L2 E PQPETTEEJ2C2R2PEES2C 2PC2PZPUC2EEI2EC2D2E PT2U2C2PZJ2PC2EZLEF2 EZPEPPZPP P IV2XPC2W2C2C2EJ2G2EX ZID2G2X2C2C2PPPQE ZEZEPC2C E PEC2PY2PEPEPD2EEZ2PE A3EJ2EPD2PB3EPC2EPPE PC2 P B2PEPEPPG2PPC2PPEPC3 EED3E3PC2EEEPF3J2EPE 2U2X2IEEEPPTPPG3EEEP H2PM2LPC2 E EWPEC2Q2EPC2Y2EPC2PC 2EC2EH3PEEI3PJ3PPPA3 EEPK3LC2EPEPEEEEPTI3 PIPEL3M3Q2D2PEPEP P PF2PEX E QC2D2EN3L3PEPQ P E E C2 EY2 P I I O3P E PI E E H2I C2C2P2 E P I PEPEEC2EUC2ELP3Q3 E G2I EC2PLLPEM2PEEP E PI PM2PLLELPP E PI PR3EPPP E E I EPC2S3 E C2 I T3EC2B2EC2B2PT3O2SC2 PC2C2C2TU2J2P2C2N2XE PN3U3LPC2IC2C2 C2 P I PPC2F2 C2 P I Q2V3G2C2C2PE2I3W3EEP C2 H2 I C2PELC2X3Y3PW2VC2C2E ECC2PC2Y2XC2 C2 C2I C2XD2G2C2PC2PE C2 U3I3I EI3PPM3C2C2C2C2PG2C2 M2C2F2C2PZ3PPC2PPC2V C2TW3C2F2EPP C2 T I C2TP2PC2PM2C2LC2C2PA 4C2PB4TLC2PC2F2C2C2L PC2F2C2IE C2 Q2C2PC4C2 I EC2C2PC2PD4B3EC2S C2 C2 I C2QXE4C2C2PPC2C2B2CB 3V3PPC C2 T3 I EC2G2C2C2VPC2TPJ2E C2 C2 I PPC2C2F4UC2I2PC2C2WC 2J2C2C2PE2PM2PC2C2PD 4 Y2 P C2 P P C2P P Q C2 CP P C2 C2 C2C2C2C2UN3C2C2C2C2W 3C2C2PT P P C2 C2C2I2 P PP C2 PEG4H4C2C2QC2 P C2EU2EC2C2I4J2I2G2PC 2PPP C2 C P H C2 C P E4SN3C2J4I4C2W2 C2 C2EK4 P PB3X2J2L4EC2PUR3J2QP PZ2PUC2 C2P P C2J2PT3N3C2PESC2X2PC 2PXEPESC2C2C2IM2PC2P PKC2C2E2M4EEPTPG2 E L3 P E I E PEPE P E E M2D2E3SEPEP2EC2PVEPP N4O4D2PEG2EPC2P4EPEC 2U2EED2C2E P C2 E PQP4C2C2C2EUQ2C2EC2P W2SPQ4PVP P G2CPPP E P4B2PPPN3EPD2I3EY2S P EEPP I EPI2PT3P2O4PLEB2EPP2 C2P4PKCT3LEP P EO4PC2PPPEPPTEEPEEPT PE E R4C2C2P P M2D2XKPPE3J2C2 E C2I3 P PPPTCPQPEQA2SH2G2EPE E P P EPC2EPM2PC2EG2P E PEP P XA3C2EF2PPEEPM3EECUE EPA3C2LP P E W P EP E E P C2XPP E P P PC E PSH4 P XP E PEE P OJ3P E C2G2 P E E E

First part	A
	-
Constance and Norbert	B
	-
Norbert	B
	-
Now	C
	-
Constance	D
	-
Not now	C
	-
Norbert	B
	-
Give me them again those hands	E
Put them upon my forehead how it throbs	E
Press them before my eyes the fire comes through	F
You cruellest you dearest in the world	G
Let me the Queen must grant whate'er I ask	H
How can I gain you and not ask the Queen	I
There she stays waiting for me here stand you	F
Some time or other this was to be asked	J
Now is the one time what I ask I gain	K
Let me ask now Love	L
	-
Constance	E
	-
Do and ruin us	E
	-
Norbert	B
	-
Let it be now Love All my soul breaks forth	M
How I do love you give my love its way	N
A man can have but one life and one death	O
One heaven one hell Let me fulfil my fate	P
Grant me my heaven now Let me know you mine	Q
Prove you mine write my name upon your brow	C
Hold you and have you and then die away	N
If God please with completion in my soul	R
	-
Constance	E
	-
I am not yours then how content this man	S
I am not his who change into himself	T
Have passed into his heart and beat its beats	E
Who give my hands to him my eyes my hair	U
Give all that was of me away to him	V
So well that now my spirit turned his own	W
Takes part with him against the woman here	X
Bids him not stumble at so mere a straw	Y
As caring that the world be cognisant	P
How he loves her and how she worships him	V
You have this woman not as yet that world	P
Go on I bid nor stop to care for me	Z
By saving what I cease to care about	P
The courtly name and pride of circumstance	E
The name you'll pick up and be cumbered with	A2
Just for the poor parade's sake nothing more	B2
Just that the world may slip from under you	F
Just that the world may cry So much for him	V
The man predestined to the heap of crowns	E
There goes his chance of winning one at least	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
The world	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
You love it Love me quite as well	C2
And see if I shall pray for this in vain	K
Why must you ponder what it knows or thinks	E
	-
Norbert	P
	-
You pray for what in vain	K
	-
Constance	E
	-
Oh my heart's heart	P
How I do love you Norbert that is right	P
But listen or I take my hands away	N
You say let it be now you would go now	C
And tell the Queen perhaps six steps from us	E
You love me so you do thank God	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Thank God	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Yes Norbert but you fain would tell your love	L
And what succeeds the telling ask of her	D2
My hand Now take this rose and look at it	P
Listening to me You are the minister	D2
The Queen's first favourite nor without a cause	E
To night completes your wonderful year's work	E2
This palace feast is held to celebrate	P
Made memorable by her life's success	E
That junction of two crowns on her sole head	P
Her house had only dreamed of anciently	C2
That this mere dream is grown a stable truth	F2
To night's feast makes authentic Whose the praise	E
Whose genius patience energy achieved	P
What turned the many heads and broke the hearts	E
You are the fate your minute's in the heaven	G2
Next comes the Queen's turn Name your own reward	P
With leave to clench the past chain the to come	H2
Put out an arm and touch and take the sun	G2
And fix it ever full faced on your earth	I2
Possess yourself supremely of her life	J2
You choose the single thing she will not grant	P
The very declaration of which choice	E
Will turn the scale and neutralise your work	E2
At best she will forgive you if she can	S
You think I'll let you choose her cousin's hand	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Wait First do you retain your old belief	K2
The Queen is generous nay is just	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
There there	U
So men make women love them while they know	L2
No more of women's hearts than look you here	X
You that are just and generous beside	P
Make it your own case For example now	C
I'll say I let you kiss me and hold my hands	E
Why do you know why I'll instruct you then	M2
The kiss because you have a name at court	P
This hand and this that you may shut in each	N2
A jewel if you please to pick up such	O2
That's horrible Apply it to the Queen	I
Suppose I am the Queen to whom you speak	P2
I was a nameless man you needed me	Z
Why did I proffer you my aid there stood	P
A certain pretty Cousin by your side	P
Why did I make such common cause with you	F
Access to her had not been easy else	E
You give my labours here abundant praise	E
'Faith labour while she overlooked grew play	C2
How shall your gratitude discharge itself	T
Give me her hand	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
And still I urge the same	Q2
Is the Queen just just generous or no	L2
	-
Constance	E
	-
Yes just You love a rose no harm in that	P
But was it for the rose's sake or mine	Q
You put it in your bosom mine you said	P
Then mine you still must say or else be false	E
You told the Queen you served her for herself	T
If so to serve her was to serve yourself	T
She thinks for all your unbelieving face	E
I know her In the hall six steps from us	E
One sees the twenty pictures there's a life	J2
Better than life and yet no life at all	C2
Conceive her born in such a magic dome	R2
Pictures all round her why she sees the world	P
Can recognise its given things and facts	E
The fight of giants or the feast of gods	E
Sages in senate beauties at the bath	S2
Chaces and battles the whole earth's display	C2
Landscape and sea piece down to flowers and fruit	P
And who shall question that she knows them all	C2
In better semblance than the things outside	P
Yet bring into the silent gallery	Z
Some live thing to contrast in breath and blood	P
Some lion with the painted lion there	U
You think she'll understand composedly	C2
Say that's his fellow in the hunting piece	E
Yonder I've turned to praise a hundred times	E
Not so Her knowledge of our actual earth	I2
Its hopes and fears concerns and sympathies	E
Must be too far too mediate too unreal	C2
The real exists for us outside not her	D2
How should it with that life in these four walls	E
That father and that mother first to last	P
No father and no mother friends a heap	T2
Lovers no lack a husband in due time	U2
And everyone of them alike a lie	C2
Things painted by a Rubens out of nought	P
Into what kindness friendship love should be	Z
All better all more grandiose than life	J2
Only no life mere cloth and surface paint	P
You feel while you admire How should she feel	C2
And now that she has stood thus fifty years	E
The sole spectator in that gallery	Z
You think to bring this warm real struggling love	L
In to her of a sudden and suppose	E
She'll keep her state untroubled Here's the truth	F2
She'll apprehend its value at a glance	E
Prefer it to the pictured loyalty	Z
You only have to say so men are made	P
For this they act the thing has many names	E
But this the right one and now Queen be just	P
And life slips back you lose her at the word	P
You do not even for amends gain me	Z
He will not understand oh Norbert Norbert	P
Do you not understand	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
The Queen's the Queen	I
I am myself no picture but alive	V2
In every nerve and every muscle here	X
At the palace window or in the people's street	P
As she in the gallery where the pictures glow	C2
The good of life is precious to us both	W2
She cannot love what do I want with rule	C2
When first I saw your face a year ago	C2
I knew my life's good my soul heard one voice	E
The woman yonder there's no use of life	J2
But just to obtain her heap earth's woes in one	G2
And bear them make a pile of all earth's joys	E
And spurn them as they help or help not here	X
Only obtain her How was it to be	Z
I found she was the cousin of the Queen	I
I must then serve the Queen to get to her	D2
No other way Suppose there had been one	G2
And I by saying prayers to some white star	X2
With promise of my body and my soul	C2
Might gain you should I pray the star or no	C2
Instead there was the Queen to serve I served	P
And did what other servants failed to do	P
Neither she sought nor I declared my end	P
Her good is hers my recompense be mine	Q
And let me name you as that recompense	E
	-
She dreamed that such a thing could never be	Z
Let her wake now She thinks there was some cause	E
The love of power of fame pure loyalty	Z
Perhaps she fancies men wear out their lives	E
Chasing such shades Then I've a fancy too	P
I worked because I want you with my soul	C2
I therefore ask your hand Let it be now	C
	-
Constance	E
	-
Had I not loved you from the very first	P
Were I not yours could we not steal out thus	E
So wickedly so wildly and so well	C2
You might be thus impatient What's conceived	P
Of us without here by the folks within	Y2
Where are you now immersed in cares of state	P
Where am I now intent on festal robes	E
We two embracing under death's spread hand	P
What was this thought for what this scruple of yours	E
Which broke the council up to bring about	P
One minute's meeting in the corridor	D2
And then the sudden sleights long secresies	E
The plots inscrutable deep telegraphs	E
Long planned chance meetings hazards of a look	Z2
Does she know does she not know saved or lost	P
A year of this compression's ecstasy	E
All goes for nothing you would give this up	A3
For the old way the open way the world's	E
His way who beats and his who sells his wife	J2
What tempts you their notorious happiness	E
That you're ashamed of ours The best you'll get	P
Will be the Queen grants all that you require	D2
Concedes the cousin and gets rid of you	P
And her at once and gives us ample leave	B3
To live as our five hundred happy friends	E
The world will show us with officious hand	P
Our chamber entry and stand sentinel	C2
When we so oft have stolen across her traps	E
Get the world's warrant ring the falcon's foot	P
And make it duty to be bold and swift	P
When long ago 'twas nature Have it so	E
He never hawked by rights till flung from fist	P
Oh the man's thought no woman's such a fool	C2
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Yes the man's thought and my thought which is more	B2
One made to love you let the world take note	P
Have I done worthy work be love's the praise	E
Though hampered by restrictions barred against	P
By set forms blinded by forced secresies	E
Set free my love and see what love will do	P
Shown in my life what work will spring from that	P
The world is used to have its business done	G2
On other grounds find great effects produced	P
For power's sake fame's sake motives you have named	P
So good But let my low ground shame their high	C2
Truth is the strong thing Let man's life be true	P
And love's the truth of mine Time prove the rest	P
I choose to have you stamped all over me	E
Your name upon my forehead and my breast	P
You from the sword's blade to the ribbon's edge	C3
That men may see all over you in me	E
That pale loves may die out of their pretence	E
In face of mine shames thrown on love fall off	D3
Permit this Constance Love has been so long	E3
Subdued in me eating me through and through	P
That now it's all of me and must have way	C2
Think of my work that chaos of intrigues	E
Those hopes and fears surprises and delays	E
That long endeavour earnest patient slow	E
Trembling at last to its assured result	P
Then think of this revulsion I resume	F3
Life after death it is no less than life	J2
After such long unlovely labouring days	E
And liberate to beauty life's great need	P
Of the beautiful which while it prompted work	E2
Supprest itself erewhile This eve's the time	U2
This eve intense with yon first trembling star	X2
We seem to pant and reach scarce ought between	I
The earth that rises and the heaven that bends	E
All nature self abandoned every tree	E
Flung as it will pursuing its own thoughts	E
And fixed so every flower and every weed	P
No pride no shame no victory no defeat	P
All under God each measured by itself	T
These statues round us each abrupt distinct	P
The strong in strength the weak in weakness fixed	P
The Muse for ever wedded to her lyre	G3
The Nymph to her fawn the Silence to her rose	E
And God's approval on his universe	E
Let us do so aspire to live as these	E
In harmony with truth ourselves being true	P
Take the first way and let the second come	H2
My first is to possess myself of you	P
The music sets the march step forward then	M2
And there's the Queen I go to claim you of	L
The world to witness wonder and applaud	P
Our flower of life breaks open No delay	C2
	-
Constance	E
	-
And so shall we be ruined both of us	E
Norbert I know her to the skin and bone	W
You do not know her were not born to it	P
To feel what she can see or cannot see	E
Love she is generous ay despite your Smile	C2
Generous as you are For in that thin frame	Q2
Pain twisted punctured through and through with cares	E
There lived a lavish soul until it starved	P
Debarred all healthy food Look to the soul	C2
Pity that stoop to that ere you begin	Y2
The true man's way on justice and your rights	E
Exactions and acquittance of the past	P
Begin so see what justice she will deal	C2
We women hate a debt as men a gift	P
Suppose her some poor keeper of a school	C2
Whose business is to sit thro' summer months	E
And dole out children's leave to go and play	C2
Herself superior to such lightness she	E
In the arm chair's state and p dagogic pomp	H3
To the life the laughter sun and youth outside	P
We wonder such an one looks black on us	E
I do not bid you wake her tenderness	E
That were vain truly none is left to wake	I3
But let her think her justice is engaged	P
To take the shape of tenderness and mark	J3
If she'll not coldly do its warmest deed	P
Does she love me I ask you not a whit	P
Yet thinking that her justice was engaged	P
To help a kinswoman she took me up	A3
Did more on that bare ground than other loves	E
Would do on greater argument For me	E
I have no equivalent of that cold kind	P
To pay her with my love alone to give	K3
If I give anything I give her love	L
I feel I ought to help her and I will	C2
So for her sake as yours I tell you twice	E
That women hate a debt as men a gift	P
If I were you I could obtain this grace	E
Would lay the whole I did to love's account	P
Nor yet be very false as courtiers go	E
Declare that my success was recompense	E
It would be so in fact what were it else	E
And then once loosed her generosity	E
As you will mark it then were I but you	P
To turn it let it seem to move itself	T
And make it give the thing I really take	I3
Accepting so in the poor cousin's hand	P
All value as the next thing to the queen	I
Since none loves her directly none dares that	P
A shadow of a thing a name's mere echo	E
Suffices those who miss the name and thing	L3
You pick up just a ribbon she has worn	M3
To keep in proof how near her breath you came	Q2
Say I'm so near I seem a piece of her	D2
Ask for me that way oh you understand	P
And find the same gift yielded with a grace	E
Which if you make the least show to extort	P
You'll see and when you have ruined both of us	E
Dis s ertate on the Queen's ingratitude	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Then if I turn it that way you consent	P
'Tis not my way I have more hope in truth	F2
Still if you won't have truth why this indeed	P
Is scarcely false I'll so express the sense	E
Will you remain here	X
	-
Constance	E
	-
O best heart of mine	Q
How I have loved you then you take my way	C2
Are mine as you have been her minister	D2
Work out my thought give it effect for me	E
Paint plain my poor conceit and make it serve	N3
I owe that withered woman everything	L3
Life fortune you remember Take my part	P
Help me to pay her Stand upon your rights	E
You with my rose my hands my heart on you	P
Your rights are mine you have no rights but mine	Q
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Remain here How you know me	E
	-
Constance	E
	-
Ah but still	C2
	-
He breaks from her she remains	E
Dance music from within	Y2
	-
	-
	-
SECOND PART	P
	-
Enter the Queen	I
	-
Queen	I
	-
Constance She is here as he said Speak quick	O3
Is it so is it true or false One word	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
True	P
Queen	I
	-
Mercifullest Mother thanks to thee	E
	-
Constance	E
	-
Madam	H2
Queen	I
	-
I love you Constance from my soul	C2
Now say once more with any words you will	C2
'Tis true all true as true as that I speak	P2
	-
Constance	E
	-
Why should you doubt it	P
	-
Queen	I
	-
Ah why doubt why doubt	P
Dear make me see it Do you see it so	E
None see themselves another sees them best	P
You say why doubt it you see him and me	E
It is because the Mother has such grace	E
That if we had but faith wherein we fail	C2
Whate'er we yearn for would be granted us	E
Howbeit we let our whims prescribe despair	U
Our very fancies thwart and cramp our will	C2
And so accepting life abjure ourselves	E
Constance I had abjured the hope of love	L
And of being loved as truly as yon palm	P3
The hope of seeing Egypt from that turf	Q3
	-
Constance	E
	-
Heaven	G2
Queen	I
	-
But it was so Constance it was so	E
Men say or do men say it fancies say	C2
Stop here your life is set you are grown old	P
Too late no love for you too late for love	L
Leave love to girls Be queen let Constance love	L
One takes the hint half meets it like a child	P
Ashamed at any feelings that oppose	E
Oh love true never think of love again	M2
I am a queen I rule not love indeed	P
So it goes on so a face grows like this	E
Hair like this hair poor arms as lean as these	E
Till nay it does not end so I thank God	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
I cannot understand	P
Queen	I
	-
The happier you	P
Constance I know not how it is with men	M2
For women I am a woman now like you	P
There is no good of life but love but love	L
What else looks good is some shade flung from love	L
Love gilds it gives it worth Be warned by me	E
Never you cheat yourself one instant Love	L
Give love ask only love and leave the rest	P
O Constance how I love you	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
I love you	P
Queen	I
	-
I do believe that all is come through you	P
I took you to my heart to keep it warm	R3
When the last chance of love seemed dead in me	E
I thought your fresh youth warmed my withered heart	P
Oh I am very old now am I not	P
Not so it is true and it shall be true	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Tell it me let me judge if true or false	E
	-
Queen	I
	-
Ah but I fear you you will look at me	E
And say she's old she's grown unlovely quite	P
Who ne'er was beauteous men want beauty still	C2
Well so I feared the curse so I felt sure	S3
	-
Constance	E
	-
Be calm And now you feel not sure you say	C2
	-
Queen	I
	-
Constance he came the coming was not strange	T3
Do not I stand and see men come and go	E
I turned a half look from my pedestal	C2
Where I grow marble one young man the more	B2
He will love some one that is nought to me	E
What would he with my marble stateliness	C2
Yet this seemed somewhat worse than heretofore	B2
The man more gracious youthful like a god	P
And I still older with less flesh to change	T3
We two those dear extremes that long to touch	O2
It seemed still harder when he first began	S
Absorbed to labour at the state affairs	C2
The old way for the old end interest	P
Oh to live with a thousand beating hearts	C2
Around you swift eyes serviceable hands	C2
Professing they've no care but for your cause	C2
Thought but to help you love but for yourself	T
And you the marble statue all the time	U2
They praise and point at as preferred to life	J2
Yet leave for the first breathing woman's cheek	P2
First dancer's gypsy's or street baladine's	C2
Why how I have ground my teeth to hear men's speech	N2
Stifled for fear it should alarm my ear	X
Their gait subdued lest step should startle me	E
Their eyes declined such queendom to respect	P
Their hands alert such treasure to preserve	N3
While not a man of these broke rank and spoke	U3
Or wrote me a vulgar letter all of love	L
Or caught my hand and pressed it like a hand	P
There have been moments if the sentinel	C2
Lowering his halbert to salute the queen	I
Had flung it brutally and clasped my knees	C2
I would have stooped and kissed him with my soul	C2
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Who could have comprehended	P
	-
Queen	I
	-
Ay who who	P
Why no one Constance but this one who did	P
Not they not you not I Even now perhaps	C2
it comes too late would you but tell the truth	F2
	-
Constance	C2
	-
I wait to tell it	P
	-
Queen	I
	-
Well you see he came	Q2
Outfaced the others did a work this year	V3
Exceeds in value all was ever done	G2
You know it is not I who say it all	C2
Say it And so a second pang and worse	C2
I grew aware not only of what he did	P
But why so wondrously Oh never work	E2
Like his was done for work's ignoble sake	I3
It must have finer aims to spur it on	W3
I felt I saw he loved loved somebody	E
And Constance my dear Constance do you know	E
I did believe this while 'twas you he loved	P
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Me madam	H2
	-
Queen	I
	-
It did seem to me your face	C2
Met him where'er he looked and whom but you	P
Was such a man to love it seemed to me	E
You saw he loved you and approved the love	L
And that you both were in intelligence	C2
You could not loiter in the garden step	X3
Into this balcony but I straight was stung	Y3
And forced to understand It seemed so true	P
So right so beautiful so like you both	W2
That all this work should have been done by him	V
Not for the vulgar hope of recompense	C2
But that at last suppose some night like this	C2
Borne on to claim his due reward of me	E
He might say Give her hand and pay me so	E
And I O Constance you shall love me now	C
I thought surmounting all the bitterness	C2
And he shall have it I will make her blest	P
My flower of youth my woman's self that was	C2
My happiest woman's self that might have been	Y2
These two shall have their joy and leave me here	X
Yes yes	C2
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Thanks	C2
Queen	I
	-
And the word was on my lips	C2
When he burst in upon me I looked to hear	X
A mere calm statement of his just desire	D2
In payment of his labour When O Heaven	G2
How can I tell you cloud was on my eyes	C2
And thunder in my ears at that first word	P
Which told 'twas love of me of me did all	C2
He loved me from the first step to the last	P
Loved me	E
	-
Constance	C2
	-
You did not hear you thought he spoke	U3
Of love what if you should mistake	I3
Queen	I
	-
No no	E
No mistake Ha there shall be no mistake	I3
He had not dared to hint the love he felt	P
You were my reflex how I understood	P
He said you were the ribbon I had worn	M3
He kissed my hand he looked into my eyes	C2
And love love was the end of every phrase	C2
Love is begun this much is come to pass	C2
The rest is easy Constance I am yours	C2
I will learn I will place my life on you	P
But teach me how to keep what I have won	G2
Am I so old this hair was early grey	C2
But joy ere now has brought hair brown again	M2
And joy will bring the cheek's red back I feel	C2
I could sing once too that was in my youth	F2
Still when men paint me they declare me yes	C2
Beautiful for the last French Painter did	P
I know they flatter somewhat you are frank	Z3
I trust you How I loved you from the first	P
Some queens would hardly seek a cousin out	P
And set her by their side to take the eye	C2
I must have felt that good would come from you	P
I am not generous like him like you	P
But he is not your lover after all	C2
It was not you he looked at Saw you him	V
You have not been mistaking words or looks	C2
He said you were the reflex of myself	T
And yet he is not such a paragon	W3
To you to younger women who may choose	C2
Among a thousand Norberts Speak the truth	F2
You know you never named his name to me	E
You know I cannot give him up all God	P
Not up now even to you	P
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Then calm yourself	T
	-
Queen	I
	-
See I am old look here you happy girl	C2
I will not play the fool deceive myself	T
'Tis all gone put your cheek beside my cheek	P2
Ah what a contrast does the moon behold	P
But then I set my life upon one chance	C2
The last chance and the best am I not left	P
My soul myself All women love great men	M2
If young or old it is in all the tales	C2
Young beauties love old poets who can love	L
Why thould not he the poems in my soul	C2
The love the passionate faith the sacrifice	C2
The constancy I throw them at his feet	P
Who cares to see the fountain's very shape	A4
And whether it be a Triton's or a Nymph's	C2
That pours the foam makes rainbows all around	P
You could not praise indeed the empty conch	B4
But I'll pour floods of love and hide myself	T
How I will love him cannot men love love	L
Who was a queen and loved a poet once	C2
Humpbacked a dwarf all women can do that	P
Well but men too at least they tell you so	C2
They love so many women in their youth	F2
And even in age they all love whom they please	C2
And yet the best of them confide to friends	C2
That 'tis not beauty makes the lasting love	L
They spend a day with such and tire the next	P
They like soul well then they like phantasy	C2
Novelty even Let us confess the truth	F2
Horrible though it be that prejudice	C2
Prescription Curses they will love a queen	I
They will they do And will not does not he	E
	-
Constance	C2
	-
How can he You are wedded 'tis a name	Q2
We know but still a bond Your rank remains	C2
His rank remains How can he nobly souled	P
As you believe and I incline to think	C4
Aspire to be your favourite shame and all	C2
	-
Queen	I
	-
Hear her there there now could she love like me	E
What did I say of smooth cheeked youth and grace	C2
See all it does or could do I so youth loves	C2
Oh tell him Constance you could never do	P
What I will you it was not born in I	C2
Will drive these difficulties far and fast	P
As yonder mists curdling before the moon	D4
I'll use my light too gloriously retrieve	B3
My youth from its enforced calamity	E
Dissolve that hateful marriage and be his	C2
His own in the eyes alike of God and man	S
	-
Constance	C2
	-
You will do dare do Pause on what you say	C2
	-
Queen	I
	-
Hear her I thank you Sweet for that surprise	C2
You have the fair face for the soul see mine	Q
I have the strong soul let me teach you here	X
I think I have borne enough and long enough	E4
And patiently enough the world remarks	C2
To have my own way now unblamed by all	C2
It does so happen I rejoice for it	P
This most unhoped for issue cuts the knot	P
There's not a better way of settling claims	C2
Than this God sends the accident express	C2
And were it for my subjects' good no more	B2
'Twere best thus ordered I am thankful now	C
Mute passive acquiescent I receive	B3
And bless God simply or should almost fear	V3
To walk so smoothly to my ends at last	P
Why how I baffle obstacles spurn fate	P
How strong I am could Norbert see me now	C
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Let me consider It is all too strange	T3
	-
Queen	I
	-
You Constance learn of me do you like me	E
You are young beautiful my own best girl	C2
You will have many lovers and love one	G2
Light hair not hair like Norbert's to suit yours	C2
And taller than he is for you are tall	C2
Love him like me give all away to him	V
Think never of yourself throw by your pride	P
Hope fear your own good as you saw it once	C2
And love him simply for his very self	T
Remember I and what am I to you	P
Would give up all for one leave throne lose life	J2
Do all but just unlove him he loves me	E
	-
Constance	C2
	-
He shall	C2
	-
Queen	I
	-
You step inside my inmost heart	P
Give me your own heart let us have one heart	P
I'll come to you for counsel This he says	C2
This he does what should this amount to pray	C2
Beseech you change it into current coin	F4
Is that worth kisses shall I please him there	U
And then we'll speak in turn of you what else	C2
Your love according to your beauty's worth	I2
For you shall have some noble love all gold	P
Whom choose you we will get him at your choice	C2
Constance I leave you Just a minute since	C2
I felt as I must die or be alone	W
Breathing my soul into an ear like yours	C2
Now I would face the world with my new life	J2
With my new crown I'll walk around the rooms	C2
And then come back and tell you how it feels	C2
How soon a smile of God can change the world	P
How we are all made for happiness how work	E2
Grows play adversity a winning fight	P
True I have lost so many years What then	M2
Many remain God has been very good	P
You stay here 'Tis as different from dreams	C2
From the mind's cold calm estimate of bliss	C2
As these stone statues from the flesh and blood	P
The comfort thou hast caused mankind God's moon	D4
	-
She goes out Dance music from within	Y2
	-
	-
	-
PART THIRD	P
	-
Norbert enters	C2
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Well we have but one minute and one word	P
	-
Constance	C2
I am yours Norbert	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Yes mine	Q
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Not till now	C
You were mine Now I give myself to you	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Your own I know the thriftier way	C2
Of giving haply 'tis the wiser way	C2
Meaning to give a treasure I might dole	C2
Coin after coin out each as that were all	C2
With a new largess still at each despair	U
And force you keep in sight the deed reserve	N3
Exhaustless till the end my part and yours	C2
My giving and your taking both our joys	C2
Dying together Is it the wiser way	C2
I choose the simpler I give all at once	C2
Know what you have to trust to trade upon	W3
Use it abuse it anything but say	C2
Hereafter Had I known she loved me so	C2
And what my means I might have thriven with it	P
This is your means I give you all myself	T
	-
Norbert	P
	-
I take you and thank God	P
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Look on through years	C2
We cannot kiss a second day like this	C2
Else were this earth no earth	I2
	-
Norbert	P
	-
With this day's heat	P
We shall go on through years of cold	P
	-
Constance	C2
	-
So best	P
I try to see those years I think I see	E
You walk quick and new warmth comes you look back	G4
And lay all to the first glow not sit down	H4
For ever brooding on a day like this	C2
While seeing the embers whiten and love die	C2
Yes love lives best in its effect and mine	Q
Full in its own life yearns to live in yours	C2
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Just so I take and know you all at once	C2
Your soul is disengaged so easily	E
Your face is there I know you give me time	U2
Let me be proud and think you shall know me	E
My soul is slower in a life I roll	C2
The minute out in which you condense yours	C2
The whole slow circle round you I must move	I4
To be just you I look to a long life	J2
To decompose this minute prove its worth	I2
'Tis the sparks' long succession one by one	G2
Shall show you in the end what fire was crammed	P
In that mere stone you struck you could not know	C2
If it lay ever unproved in your sight	P
As now my heart lies your own warmth would hide	P
Its coldness were it cold	P
	-
Constance	C2
	-
But how prove how	C
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Prove in my life you ask	H
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Quick Norbert how	C
	-
Norbert	P
	-
That's easy told I count life just a stuff	E4
To try the soul's strength on educe the man	S
Who keeps one end in view makes all things serve	N3
As with the body he who hurls a lance	C2
Or heaps up stone on stone shows strength alike	J4
So I will seize and use all means to prove	I4
And show this soul of mine you crown as yours	C2
And justify us both	W2
	-
Constance	C2
	-
Could you write books	C2
Paint pictures one sits down in poverty	E
And writes or paints with pity for the rich	K4
	-
Norbert	P
	-
And loves one's painting and one's writing too	P
And not one's mistress All is best believe	B3
And we best as no other than we are	X2
We live and they experiment on life	J2
Those poets painters all who stand aloof	L4
To overlook the farther Let us be	E
The thing they look at I might take that face	C2
And write of it and paint it to what end	P
For whom what pale dictatress in the air	U
Feeds smiling sadly her fine ghost like form	R3
With earth's real blood and breath the beauteous life	J2
She makes despised for ever You are mine	Q
Made for me not for others in the world	P
Nor yet for that which I should call my art	P
That cold calm power to see how fair you look	Z2
I come to you I leave you not to write	P
Or paint You are I am Let Rubens there	U
Paint us	C2
	-
Constance	C2
So best	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
I understand your soul	C2
You live and rightly sympathise with life	J2
With action power success this way is straight	P
And days were short beside to let me change	T3
The craft my childhood learnt my craft shall serve	N3
Men set me here to subjugate enclose	C2
Manure their barren lives and force the fruit	P
First for themselves and afterward for me	E
In the due tithe the task of some one man	S
By ways of work appointed by themselves	C2
I am not bid create they see no star	X2
Transfiguring my brow to warrant that	P
But bind in one and carry out their wills	C2
So I began to night sees how I end	P
What if it see too my first outbreak here	X
Amid the warmth surprise and sympathy	E
The instincts of the heart that teach the head	P
What if the people have discerned in me	E
The dawn of the next nature the new man	S
Whose will they venture in the place of theirs	C2
And whom they trust to find them out new ways	C2
To the new heights which yet he only sees	C2
I felt it when you kissed me See this Queen	I
This people in our phrase this mass of men	M2
See how the mass lies passive to my hand	P
And how my hand is plastic and you by	C2
To make the muscles iron Oh an end	P
Shall crown this issue as this crowns the first	P
My will be on this people then the strain	K
The grappling of the potter with his clay	C2
The long uncertain struggle the success	C2
In that uprising of the spirit work	E2
The vase shaped to the curl of the god's lip	M4
While rounded fair for lower men to see	E
The Graces in a dance they recognise	E
With turbulent applause and laughs of heart	P
So triumph ever shall renew itself	T
Ever to end in efforts higher yet	P
Ever begun	G2
	-
Constance	E
	-
I ever helping	L3
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Thus	E
	-
As he embraces her enter the Queen	I
	-
Constance	E
	-
Hist madam so I have performed my part	P
You see your gratitude's true decency	E
Norbert a little slow in seeing it	P
Begun to end the sooner What's a kiss	E
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Constance	E
	-
Why must I teach it you again	M2
You want a witness to your dullness sir	D2
What was I saying these ten minutes long	E3
Then I repeat when some young handsome man	S
Like you has acted out a part like yours	E
Is pleased to fall in love with one beyond	P
So very far beyond him as he says	E
So hopelessly in love that but to speak	P2
Would prove him mad he thinks judiciously	E
And makes some insignificant good soul	C2
Like me his friend adviser confidant	P
And very stalking horse to cover him	V
In following after what he dares not face	E
When his end's gained sir do you understand	P
When she he dares not face has loved him first	P
May I not say so madam tops his hope	N4
And overpasses so his wildest dream	O4
With glad consent of all and most of her	D2
The confidant who brought the same about	P
Why in the moment when such joy explodes	E
I do say that the merest gentleman	G2
Will not start rudely from the stalking horse	E
Dismiss it with a There enough of you	P
Forget it show his back unmannerly	C2
But like a liberal heart will rather turn	P4
And say A tingling time of hope was ours	E
Betwixt the fears and falterings we two lived	P
A chanceful time in waiting for the prize	E
The confidant the Constance served not ill	C2
And though I shall forget her in due time	U2
Her use being answered now as reason bids	E
Nay as herself bids from her heart of hearts	E
Still she has rights the first thanks go to her	D2
The first good praise goes to the prosperous tool	C2
And the first which is the last thankful kiss	E
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Constance it is a dream ah see you smile	C2
	-
Constance	E
	-
So now his part being properly performed	P
Madam I turn to you and finish mine	Q
As duly I do justice in my turn	P4
Yes madam he has loved you long and well	C2
He could not hope to tell you so 'twas I	C2
Who served to prove your soul accessible	C2
I led his thoughts on drew them to their place	E
When oft they had wandered out into despair	U
And kept love constant toward its natural aim	Q2
Enough my part is played you stoop half way	C2
And meet us royally and spare our fears	E
'Tis like yourself he thanks you so do I	C2
Take him with my full heart my work is praised	P
By what comes of it Be you happy both	W2
Yourself the only one on earth who can	S
Do all for him much more than a mere heart	P
Which though warm is not useful in its warmth	Q4
As the silk vesture of a queen fold that	P
Around him gently tenderly For him	V
For him he knows his own part	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Have you done	G2
I take the jest at last Should I speak now	C
Was yours the wager Constance foolish child	P
Or did you but accept it Well at least	P
You lose by it	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Now madam 'tis your turn	P4
Restrain him still from speech a little more	B2
And make him happier and more confident	P
Pity him madam he is timid yet	P
Mark Norbert do not shrink now Here I yield	P
My whole right in you to the Queen observe	N3
With her go put in practice the great schemes	E
You teem with follow the career else closed	P
Be all you cannot be except by her	D2
Behold her Madam say for pity's sake	I3
Anything frankly say you love him Else	E
He'll not believe it there's more earnest in	Y2
His fear than you conceive I know the man	S
	-
Norbert	P
	-
I know the woman somewhat and confess	E
I thought she had jested better she begins	E
To overcharge her part I gravely wait	P
Your pleasure madam where is my reward	P
	-
Queen	I
	-
Norbert this wild girl whom I recognise	E
Scarce more than you do in her fancy fit	P
Eccentric speech and variable mirth	I2
Not very wise perhaps and somewhat bold	P
Yet suitable the whole night's work being strange	T3
May still be right I may do well to speak	P2
And make authentic what appears a dream	O4
To even myself For what she says is true	P
Yes Norbert what you spoke but now of love	L
Devotion stirred no novel sense in me	E
But justified a warmth felt long before	B2
Yes from the first I loved you I shall say	E
Strange but I do grow stronger now 'tis said	P
Your courage helps mine you did well to speak	P2
To night the night that crowns your twelvemonths' toil	C2
But still I had not waited to discern	P4
Your heart so long believe me From the first	P
The source of so much zeal was almost plain	K
In absence even of your own words just now	C
Which opened out the truth 'Tis very strange	T3
But takes a happy ending in your love	L
Which mine meets be it so as you choose me	E
So I choose you	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
And worthily you choose	E
I will not be unworthy your esteem	O4
No madam I do love you I will meet	P
Your nature now I know it this was well	C2
I see you dare and you are justified	P
But none had ventured such experiment	P
Less versed than you in nobleness of heart	P
Less confident of finding it in me	E
I like that thus you test me ere you grant	P
The dearest richest beauteousest and best	P
Of women to my arms 'Tis like yourself	T
So back again into my part's set words	E
Devotion to the uttermost is yours	E
But no you cannot madam even you	P
Create in me the love our Constance does	E
Or something truer to the tragic phrase	E
Not yon magnolia bell superb with scent	P
Invites a certain insect that's myself	T
But the small eye flower nearer to the ground	P
I take this lady	E
	-
Constance	E
	-
Stay not hers the trap	R4
Stay Norbert that mistake were worst of all	C2
He is too cunning madam it was I	C2
I Norbert who	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
You was it Constance Then	M2
But for the grace of this divinest hour	D2
Which gives me you I should not pardon here	X
I am the Queen's she only knows my brain	K
She may experiment therefore on my heart	P
And I instruct her too by the result	P
But you sweet you who know me who so long	E3
Have told my heart beats over held my life	J2
In those white hands of yours it is not well	C2
	-
Constance	E
	-
Tush I have said it did I not say it all	C2
The life for her the heart beats for her sake	I3
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Enough my cheek grows red I think Your test	P
There's not the meanest woman in the world	P
Not she I least could love in all the world	P
Whom did she love me did love prove itself	T
I dared insult as you insult me now	C
Constance I could say if it must be said	P
Take back the soul you offer I keep mine	Q
But Take the soul still quivering on your hand	P
The soul so offered which I cannot use	E
And please you give it to some friend of mine	Q
For what's the trifle he requites me with	A2
I tempt a woman to amuse a man	S
That two may mock her heart if it succumb	H2
No fearing God and standing 'neath his heaven	G2
I would not dare insult a woman so	E
Were she the meanest woman in the world	P
And he I cared to please ten emperors	E
	-
Constance	E
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
I love once as I live but once	E
What case is this to think or talk about	P
I love you Would it mend the case at all	C2
Should such a step as this kill love in me	E
Your part were done account to God for it	P
But mine could murdered love get up again	M2
And kneel to whom you pleased to designate	P
And make you mirth It is too horrible	C2
You did not know this Constance now you know	E
That body and soul have each one life but one	G2
And here's my love here living at your feet	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
See the Queen Norbert this one more last word	P
If thus you have taken jest for earnest thus	E
Loved me in earnest	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Ah no jest holds here	X
Where is the laughter in which jests break up	A3
And what this horror that grows palpable	C2
Madam why grasp you thus the balcony	E
Have I done ill Have I not spoken the truth	F2
How could I other Was it not your test	P
To try me and what my love for Constance meant	P
Madam your royal soul itself approves	E
The first that I should choose thus so one takes	E
A beggar asks him what would buy his child	P
And then approves the expected laugh of scorn	M3
Returned as something noble from the rags	E
Speak Constance I'm the beggar Ha what's this	E
You two glare each at each like panthers now	C
Constance the world fades only you stand there	U
You did not in to night's wild whirl of things	E
Sell me your soul of souls for any price	E
No no 'tis easy to believe in you	P
Was it your love's mad trial to o'ertop	A3
Mine by this vain self sacrifice well still	C2
Though I should curse I love you I am love	L
And cannot change love's self is at your feet	P
	-
Queen goes out	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Feel my heart let it die against your own	W
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Against my own explain not let this be	E
This is life's height	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Yours Yours Yours	E
	-
Norbert	P
	-
You and I	C2
Why care by what meanders we are here	X
In the centre of the labyrinth men have died	P
Trying to find this place out which we have found	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
Found found	P
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Sweet never fear what she can do	P
We are past harm now	C
	-
Constance	E
	-
On the breast of God	P
I thought of men as if you were a man	S
Tempting him with a crown	H4
	-
Norbert	P
	-
This must end here	X
It is too perfect	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
There's the music stopped	P
What measured heavy tread it is one blaze	E
About me and within me	E
	-
Norbert	P
	-
Oh some death	O
Will run its sudden finger round this spark	J3
And sever us from the rest	P
	-
Constance	E
	-
And so do well	C2
Now the doors open	G2
	-
Norbert	P
	-
'Tis the guard comes	E
	-
Constance	E
	-
Kiss	E

Robert Browning

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