James Lee's Wife Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDCD EFEFGFG HIJIKIK L MNMAAOON PQPRRSSQ TUTVVWWU IFXFHHYYX B ZA2ZB2C2C2Z C2D2C2D2E2E2C2 IF2IF2C2C2I IG2C2G2C2C2C2G2 H2 FI2FFI2 EJ2EEJ2 K2E2K2K2E2 IC2FC2C2F INL2NNL2 IM2IM2M2I IF2I2F2F2I2 IIC2IIC2 I IIN2IN2O2O2 IC2P2C2P2J2J2 IBFBFC2C2 IQ2R2Q2IC2C2 IAS2AS2XX I IAIAIA IC2R2C2R2C2 IT2R2T2R2T2 IO2FO2FJ IC2C2C2C2C2 IC2C2C2C2C2 IC2E2C2E2C2 IEU2EU2E EC2IC2IC2 EC2C2C2C2C2 IV2EV2EV2 EEEEEE ER2M2R2M2R2 IC2C2C2V2C2 IC2EC2EC2 IIW2IW2I E C2K2EC2K2EC2 C2FEIFEI C2 C2C2W2C2W2C2C2EER2C2 C2R2NNFS2FX2X2FFEC2C 2EE C2W2EW2EC2C2C2C2NNII FS2FX2C2R2C2R2R2C2 C2C2C2C2C2C2FFC2FY2Y 2C2Y2C2C2 C2C2C2EYYEEE2C2C2E2E EV2V2C2V2 V2JZ2V2 C2C2 A3 C2IEIEI C2IM2IM2I C2IO2IO2I IIX2IX2I IIB3IB3I IIIIII IIEIEI IIR2IR2I

I James Lee's Wife Speaks at the Window	A
	-
I	-
Ah Love but a day	B
And the world has changed	C
The sun's away	B
And the bird estranged	C
The wind has dropped	D
And the sky's deranged	C
Summer has stopped	D
	-
II	-
Look in my eyes	E
Wilt thou change too	F
Should I fear surprise	E
Shall I find aught new	F
In the old and dear	G
In the good and true	F
With the changing year	G
	-
III	-
Thou art a man	H
But I am thy love	I
For the lake its swan	J
For the dell its dove	I
And for thee oh haste	K
Me to bend above	I
Me to hold embraced	K
	-
	-
	-
II By the Fireside	L
	-
I	-
Is all our fire of shipwreck wood	M
Oak and pine	N
Oh for the ills half understood	M
The dim dead woe	A
Long ago	A
Befallen this bitter coast of France	O
Well poor sailors took their chance	O
I take mine	N
	-
II	-
A ruddy shaft our fire must shoot	P
O'er the sea	Q
Do sailors eye the casement mute	P
Drenched and stark	R
From their bark	R
And envy gnash their teeth for hate	S
O' the warm safe house and happy freight	S
Thee and me	Q
	-
III	-
God help you sailors at your need	T
Spare the curse	U
For some ships safe in port indeed	T
Rot and rust	V
Run to dust	V
All through worms i' the wood which crept	W
Gnawed our hearts out while we slept	W
That is worse	U
	-
IV	I
Who lived here before us two	F
Old world pairs	X
Did a woman ever would I knew	F
Watch the man	H
With whom began	H
Love's voyage full sail now gnash your teeth	Y
When planks start open hell beneath	Y
Unawares	X
	-
	-
	-
III In the Doorway	B
	-
I	-
The swallow has set her six young on the rail	Z
And looks sea ward	A2
The water's in stripes like a snake olive pale	Z
To the leeward	B2
On the weather side black spotted white with the wind	C2
Good fortune departs and disaster's behind	C2
Hark the wind with its wants and its infinite wail	Z
	-
II	-
Our fig tree that leaned for the saltness has furled	C2
Her five fingers	D2
Each leaf like a hand opened wide to the world	C2
Where there lingers	D2
No glint of the gold Summer sent for her sake	E2
How the vines writhe in rows each impaled on its stake	E2
My heart shrivels up and my spirit shrinks curled	C2
	-
III	-
Yet here are we two we have love house enough	I
With the field there	F2
This house of four rooms that field red and rough	I
Though it yield there	F2
For the rabbit that robs scarce a blade or a bent	C2
If a magpie alight now it seems an event	C2
And they both will be gone at November's rebuff	I
	-
IV	I
But why must cold spread but wherefore bring change	G2
To the spirit	C2
God meant should mate his with an infinite range	G2
And inherit	C2
His power to put life in the darkness and cold	C2
Oh live and love worthily bear and be bold	C2
Whom Summer made friends of let Winter estrange	G2
	-
	-
	-
IV Along the Beach	H2
	-
I	-
I will be quiet and talk with you	F
And reason why you are wrong	I2
You wanted my love is that much true	F
And so I did love so I do	F
What has come of it all along	I2
	-
II	-
I took you how could I otherwise	E
For a world to me and more	J2
For all love greatens and glorifies	E
Till God's a glow to the loving eyes	E
In what was mere earth before	J2
	-
III	-
Yes earth yes mere ignoble earth	K2
Now do I mis state mistake	E2
Do I wrong your weakness and call it worth	K2
Expect all harvest dread no dearth	K2
Seal my sense up for your sake	E2
	-
IV	I
Oh Love Love no Love I not so indeed	C2
You were just weak earth I knew	F
With much in you waste with many a weed	C2
And plenty of passions run to seed	C2
But a little good grain too	F
	-
V	I
And such as you were I took you for mine	N
Did not you find me yours	L2
To watch the olive and wait the vine	N
And wonder when rivers of oil and wine	N
Would flow as the Book assures	L2
	-
VI	I
Well and if none of these good things came	M2
What did the failure prove	I
The man was my whole world all the same	M2
With his flowers to praise or his weeds to blame	M2
And either or both to love	I
	-
VII	I
Yet this turns now to a fault there there	F2
That I do love watch too long	I2
And wait too well and weary and wear	F2
And 't is all an old story and my despair	F2
Fit subject for some new song	I2
	-
VIII	I
How the light light love he has wings to fly	I
At suspicion of a bond	C2
My wisdom has bidden your pleasure good bye	I
Which will turn up next in a laughing eye	I
And why should you look beyond	C2
	-
	-
	-
V On the Cliff	I
	-
I	I
I leaned on the turf	I
I looked at a rock	N2
Left dry by the surf	I
For the turf to call it grass were to mock	N2
Dead to the roots so deep was done	O2
The work of the summer sun	O2
	-
II	I
And the rock lay flat	C2
As an anvil's face	P2
No iron like that	C2
Baked dry of a weed of a shell no trace	P2
Sunshine outside but ice at the core	J2
Death's altar by the lone shore	J2
	-
III	I
On the turf sprang gay	B
With his films of blue	F
No cricket I'll say	B
But a warhorse barded and chanfroned too	F
The gift of a quixote mage to his knight	C2
Real fairy with wings all right	C2
	-
IV	I
On the rock they scorch	Q2
Like a drop of fire	R2
From a brandished torch	Q2
Fall two red fans of a butterfly	I
No turf no rock in their ugly stead	C2
See wonderful blue and red	C2
	-
V	I
Is it not so	A
With the minds of men	S2
The level and low	A
The burnt and bare in themselves but then	S2
With such a blue and red grace not theirs	X
Love settling unawares	X
	-
	-
	-
VI Reading a Book Under the Cliff	I
	-
I	I
Still ailing Wind Wilt be appeased or no	A
Which needs the other's office thou or I	I
Dost want to be disburthened of a woe	A
And can in truth my voice untie	I
Its links and let it go	A
	-
II	I
Art thou a dumb wronged thing that would be righted	C2
Entrusting thus thy cause to me Forbear	R2
No tongue can mend such pleadings faith requited	C2
With falsehood love at last aware	R2
Of scorn hopes early blighted	C2
	-
III	I
We have them but I know not any tone	T2
So fit as thine to falter forth a sorrow	R2
Dost think men would go mad without a moan	T2
If they knew any way to borrow	R2
A pathos like thy own	T2
	-
IV	I
Which sigh wouldst mock of all the sighs The one	O2
So long escaping from lips starved and blue	F
That lasts while on her pallet bed the nun	O2
Stretches her length her foot comes through	F
The straw she shivers on	J
	-
V	I
You had not thought she was so tall and spent	C2
Her shrunk lids open her lean fingers shut	C2
Close close their sharp and livid nails indent	C2
The clammy palm then all is mute	C2
That way the spirit went	C2
	-
VI	I
Or wouldst thou rather that I understand	C2
Thy will to help me like the dog I found	C2
Once pacing sad this solitary strand	C2
Who would not take my food poor hound	C2
But whined and licked my hand	C2
	-
VII	I
All this and more comes from some young man's pride	C2
Of power to see in failure and mistake	E2
Relinquishment disgrace on every side	C2
Merely examples for his sake	E2
Helps to his path untried	C2
	-
VIII	I
Instances he must simply recognize	E
Oh more than so must with a learner's zeal	U2
Make doubly prominent twice emphasize	E
By added touches that reveal	U2
The god in babe's disguise	E
	-
IX	E
Oh he knows what defeat means and the rest	C2
Himself the undefeated that shall be	I
Failure disgrace he flings them you to test	C2
His triumph in eternity	I
Too plainly manifest	C2
	-
X	E
Whence judge if he learn forthwith what the wind	C2
Means in its moaning by the happy prompt	C2
Instinctive way of youth I mean for kind	C2
Calm years exacting their accompt	C2
Of pain mature the mind	C2
	-
XI	I
And some midsummer morning at the lull	V2
Just about daybreak as he looks across	E
A sparkling foreign country wonderful	V2
To the sea's edge for gloom and gloss	E
Next minute must annul	V2
	-
XII	E
Then when the wind begins among the vines	E
So low so low what shall it say but this	E
Here is the change beginning here the lines	E
Circumscribe beauty set to bliss	E
The limit time assigns	E
	-
XIII	E
Nothing can be as it has been before	R2
Better so call it only not the same	M2
To draw one beauty into our hearts' core	R2
And keep it changeless such our claim	M2
So answered Never more	R2
	-
XIV	I
Simple Why this is the old woe o' the world	C2
Tune to whose rise and fall we live and die	C2
Rise with it then Rejoice that man is hurled	C2
From change to change unceasingly	V2
His soul's wings never furled	C2
	-
XV	I
That's a new question still replies the fact	C2
Nothing endures the wind moans saying so	E
We moan in acquiescence there's life's pact	C2
Perhaps probation do I know	E
God does endure his act	C2
	-
XVI	I
Only for man how bitter not to grave	I
On his soul's hands' palms one fair good wise thing	W2
Just as he grasped it For himself death's wave	I
While time first washes ah the sting	W2
O'er all he'd sink to save	I
	-
	-
	-
VII Among the Rocks	E
	-
I	C2
Oh good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth	K2
This autumn morning How he sets his bones	E
To bask i' the sun and thrusts out knees and feet	C2
For the ripple to run over in its mirth	K2
Listening the while where on the heap of stones	E
The white breast of the sea lark twitters sweet	C2
	-
II	C2
That is the doctrine simple ancient true	F
Such is life's trial as old earth smiles and knows	E
If you loved only what were worth your love	I
Love were clear gain and wholly well for you	F
Make the low nature better by your throes	E
Give earth yourself go up for gain above	I
	-
	-
	-
VIII Beside the Drawing Board	C2
	-
I	C2
As like as a Hand to another Hand	C2
Whoever said that foolish thing	W2
Could not have studied to understand	C2
The counsels of God in fashioning	W2
Out of the infinite love of his heart	C2
This Hand whose beauty I praise apart	C2
From the world of wonder left to praise	E
If I tried to learn the other ways	E
Of love in its skill or love in its power	R2
As like as a Hand to another Hand	C2
Who said that never took his stand	C2
Found and followed like me an hour	R2
The beauty in this how free how fine	N
To fear almost of the limit line	N
As I looked at this and learned and drew	F
Drew and learned and looked again	S2
While fast the happy minutes flew	F
Its beauty mounted into my brain	X2
And a fancy seized me I was fain	X2
To efface my work begin anew	F
Kiss what before I only drew	F
Ay laying the red chalk 'twixt my lips	E
With soul to help if the mere lips failed	C2
I kissed all right where the drawing ailed	C2
Kissed fast the grace that somehow slips	E
Still from one's soulless finger tips	E
	-
II	C2
'T is a clay cast the perfect thing	W2
From Hand live once dead long ago	E
Princess like it wears the ring	W2
To fancy's eye by which we know	E
That here at length a master found	C2
His match a proud lone soul its mate	C2
As soaring genius sank to ground	C2
And pencil could not emulate	C2
The beauty in this how free how fine	N
To fear almost of the limit line	N
Long ago the god like me	I
The worm learned each in our degree	I
Looked and loved learned and drew	F
Drew and learned and loved again	S2
While fast the happy minutes flew	F
Till beauty mounted into his brain	X2
And on the finger which outvied	C2
His art he placed the ring that's there	R2
Still by fancy's eye descried	C2
In token of a marriage rare	R2
For him on earth his art's despair	R2
For him in heaven his soul's fit bride	C2
	-
III	C2
Little girl with the poor coarse hand	C2
I turned from to a cold clay cast	C2
I have my lesson understand	C2
The worth of flesh and blood at last	C2
Nothing but beauty in a Hand	C2
Because he could not change the hue	F
Mend the lines and make them true	F
To this which met his soul's demand	C2
Would Da Vinci turn from you	F
I hear him laugh my woes to scorn	Y2
The fool forsooth is all forlorn	Y2
Because the beauty she thinks best	C2
Lived long ago or was never born	Y2
Because no beauty bears the test	C2
In this rough peasant Hand Confessed	C2
'Art is null and study void '	-
So sayest thou So said not I	C2
Who threw the faulty pencil by	C2
And years instead of hours employed	C2
Learning the veritable use	E
Of flesh and bone and nerve beneath	Y
Lines and hue of the outer sheath	Y
If haply I might reproduce	E
One motive of the powers profuse	E
Flesh and bone and nerve that make	E2
The poorest coarsest human hand	C2
An object worthy to be scanned	C2
A whole life long for their sole sake	E2
Shall earth and the cramped moment space	E
Yield the heavenly crowning grace	E
Now the parts and then the whole	V2
Who art thou with stinted soul	V2
And stunted body thus to cry	C2
'I love shall that be life's strait dole	V2
'I must live beloved or die '	-
This peasant hand that spins the wool	V2
And bakes the bread why lives it on	J
Poor and coarse with beauty gone	Z2
What use survives the beauty Fool	V2
	-
Go little girl with the poor coarse hand	C2
I have my lesson shall understand	C2
	-
	-
	-
IX On Deck	A3
	-
I	C2
There is nothing to remember in me	I
Nothing I ever said with a grace	E
Nothing I did that you care to see	I
Nothing I was that deserves a place	E
In your mind now I leave you set you free	I
	-
II	C2
Conceded In turn concede to me	I
Such things have been as a mutual flame	M2
Your soul's locked fast but love for a key	I
You might let it loose till I grew the same	M2
In your eyes as in mine you stand strange plea	I
	-
III	C2
For then then what would it matter to me	I
That I was the harsh ill favoured one	O2
We both should be like as pea and pea	I
It was ever so since the world begun	O2
So let me proceed with my reverie	I
	-
IV	I
How strange it were if you had all me	I
As I have all you in my heart and brain	X2
You whose least word brought gloom or glee	I
Who never lifted the hand in vain	X2
Will hold mine yet from over the sea	I
	-
V	I
Strange if a face when you thought of me	I
Rose like your own face present now	B3
With eyes as dear in their due degree	I
Much such a mouth and as bright a brow	B3
Till you saw yourself while you cried 'T is She	I
	-
VI	I
Well you may you must set down to me	I
Love that was life life that was love	I
A tenure of breath at your lips' decree	I
A passion to stand as your thoughts approve	I
A rapture to fall where your foot might be	I
	-
VII	I
But did one touch of such love for me	I
Come in a word or a look of yours	E
Whose words and looks will circling flee	I
Round me and round while life endures	E
Could I fancy As I feel thus feels he	I
	-
VIII	I
Why fade you might to a thing like me	I
And your hair grow these coarse hanks of hair	R2
Your skin this bark of a gnarled tree	I
You might turn myself should I know or care	R2
When I should be dead of joy James Lee	I

Robert Browning

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