Too Late Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBBDEFBFBGE AHIHIJBKLKLJB ABMBMNOBPBPNO NQRQRSEBBBBTE NUBUBVWNJNJVW NXYXZA2B2NC2NC2A2B2 NBBBBBNED2ED2BN NE2BE2BBNBF2BF2BN EG2H2C2H2BBBI2BI2BB EEJ2EJ2BGNBNBBD EEBEBBK2EEEEBK2 EJ2EJ2EEEBL2BL2EEI | A |
Here was I with my arm and heart | B |
And brain all yours for a word a want | C |
Put into a look just a look your part | B |
While mine to repay it vainest vaunt | B |
Were the woman that's dead alive to hear | D |
Had her lover that's lost love's proof to show | E |
But I cannot show it you cannot speak | F |
From the churchyard neither miles removed | B |
Though I feel by a pulse within my cheek | F |
Which stabs and stops that the woman I loved | B |
Needs help in her grave and finds none near | G |
Wants warmth from the heart which sends it so | E |
- | |
II | A |
Did I speak once angrily all the drear days | H |
You lived you woman I loved so well | I |
Who married the other Blame or praise | H |
Where was the use then Time would tell | I |
And the end declare what man for you | J |
What woman for me was the choice of God | B |
But Edith dead no doubting more | K |
I used to sit and look at my life | L |
As it rippled and ran till right before | K |
A great stone stopped it oh the strife | L |
Of waves at the stone some devil threw | J |
In my life's midcurrent thwarting God | B |
- | |
III | A |
But either I thought They may churn and chide | B |
Awhile my waves which came for their joy | M |
And found this horrible stone full tide | B |
Yet I see just a thread escape deploy | M |
Through the evening country silent and safe | N |
And it suffers no more till it finds the sea | O |
Or else I would think Perhaps some night | B |
When new things happen a meteor ball | P |
May slip through the sky in a line of light | B |
And earth breathe hard and landmarks fall | P |
And my waves no longer champ nor chafe | N |
Since a stone will have rolled from its place let be | O |
- | |
IV | N |
But dead All's done with wait who may | Q |
Watch and wear and wonder who will | R |
Oh my whole life that ends to day | Q |
Oh my soul's sentence sounding still | R |
The woman is dead that was none of his | S |
And the man that was none of hers may go | E |
There's only the past left worry that | B |
Wreak like a bull on the empty coat | B |
Rage its late wearer is laughing at | B |
Tear the collar to rags having missed his throat | B |
Strike stupidly on This this and this | T |
Where I would that a bosom received the blow | E |
- | |
V | N |
I ought to have done more once my speech | U |
And once your answer and there the end | B |
And Edith was henceforth out of reach | U |
Why men do more to deserve a friend | B |
Be rid of a foe get rich grow wise | V |
Nor folding their arms stare fate in the face | W |
Why better even have burst like a thief | N |
And borne you away to a rock for us two | J |
In a moment's horror bright bloody and brief | N |
Then changed to myself again I slew | J |
Myself in that moment a ruffian lies | V |
Somewhere your slave see born in his place | W |
- | |
VI | N |
What did the other do You be judge | X |
Look at us Edith Here are we both | Y |
Give him his six whole years I grudge | X |
None of the life with you nay loathe | Z |
Myself that I grudged his start in advance | A2 |
Of me who could overtake and pass | B2 |
But as if he loved you No not he | N |
Nor anyone else in the world 't is plain | C2 |
Who ever heard that another free | N |
As I young prosperous sound and sane | C2 |
Poured life out proffered it Half a glance | A2 |
Of those eyes of yours and I drop the glass | B2 |
- | |
VII | N |
Handsome were you 'T is more than they held | B |
More than they said I was 'ware and watched | B |
I was the 'scapegrace this rat belled | B |
The cat this fool got his whiskers scratched | B |
The others No head that was turned no heart | B |
Broken my lady assure yourself | N |
Each soon made his mind up so and so | E |
Married a dancer such and such | D2 |
Stole his friend's wife stagnated slow | E |
Or maundered unable to do as much | D2 |
And muttered of peace where he had no part | B |
While hid in the closet laid on the shelf | N |
- | |
VIII | N |
On the whole you were let alone I think | E2 |
So you looked to the other who acquiesced | B |
My rival the proud man prize your pink | E2 |
Of poets A poet he was I've guessed | B |
He rhymed you his rubbish nobody read | B |
Loved you and doved you did not I laugh | N |
There was a prize But we both were tried | B |
Oh heart of mine marked broad with her mark | F2 |
Tekel found wanting set aside | B |
Scorned See I bleed these tears in the dark | F2 |
Till comfort come and the last he bled | B |
He He is tagging your epitaph | N |
- | |
IX | E |
If it would only come over again | G2 |
Time to be patient with me and probe | H2 |
This heart till you punctured the proper vein | C2 |
Just to learn what blood is twitch the robe | H2 |
From that blank lay figure your fancy draped | B |
Prick the leathern heart till the verses spirt | B |
And late it was easy late you walked | B |
Where a friend might meet you Edith's name | I2 |
Arose to one's lip if one laughed or talked | B |
If I heard good news you heard the same | I2 |
When I woke I knew that your breath escaped | B |
I could bide my time keep alive alert | B |
- | |
X | E |
And alive I shall keep and long you will see | E |
I knew a man was kicked like a dog | J2 |
From gutter to cesspool what cared he | E |
So long as he picked from the filth his prog | J2 |
He saw youth beauty and genius die | B |
And jollily lived to his hundredth year | G |
But I will live otherwise none of such life | N |
At once I begin as I mean to end | B |
Go on with the world get gold in its strife | N |
Give your spouse the slip and betray your friend | B |
There are two who decline a woman and I | B |
And enjoy our death in the darkness here | D |
- | |
XI | E |
I liked that way you had with your curls | E |
Wound to a ball in a net behind | B |
Your cheek was chaste as a quaker girl's | E |
And your mouth there was never to my mind | B |
Such a funny mouth for it would not shut | B |
And the dented chin too what a chin | K2 |
There were certain ways when you spoke some words | E |
That you know you never could pronounce | E |
You were thin however like a bird's | E |
Your hand seemed some would say the pounce | E |
Of a scaly footed hawk all but | B |
The world was right when it called you thin | K2 |
- | |
XII | E |
But I turn my back on the world I take | J2 |
Your hand and kneel and lay to my lips | E |
Bid me live Edith Let me slake | J2 |
Thirst at your presence Fear no slips | E |
'T is your slave shall pay while his soul endures | E |
Full due love's whole debt summum jus | E |
My queen shall have high observance planned | B |
Courtship made perfect no least line | L2 |
Crossed without warrant There you stand | B |
Warm too and white too would this wine | L2 |
Had washed all over that body of yours | E |
Ere I drank it and you down with it thus | E |
Robert Browning
(1)
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