Analysis of A Woman's Shortcomings
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)
She has laughed as softly as if she sighed,
She has counted six, and over,
Of a purse well filled, and a heart well tried -
Oh, each a worthy lover!
They "give her time"; for her soul must slip
Where the world has set the grooving;
She will lie to none with her fair red lip:
But love seeks truer loving.
She trembles her fan in a sweetness dumb,
As her thoughts were beyond recalling;
With a glance for one, and a glance for some,
From her eyelids rising and falling;
Speaks common words with a blushful air,
Hears bold words, unreproving;
But her silence says - what she never will swear -
And love seeks better loving.
Go, lady! lean to the night-guitar,
And drop a smile to the bringer;
Then smile as sweetly, when he is far,
At the voice of an in-door singer.
Bask tenderly beneath tender eyes;
Glance lightly, on their removing;
And join new vows to old perjuries -
But dare not call it loving!
Unless you can think, when the song is done,
No other is soft in the rhythm;
Unless you can feel, when left by One,
That all men else go with him;
Unless you can know, when unpraised by his breath,
That your beauty itself wants proving;
Unless you can swear "For life, for death!" -
Oh, fear to call it loving!
Unless you can muse in a crowd all day
On the absent face that fixed you;
Unless you can love, as the angels may,
With the breadth of heaven betwixt you;
Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,
Through behoving and unbehoving;
Unless you can die when the dream is past -
Oh, never call it loving!
Scheme | ABABCDCD EDEDFDFD GBGBHDHD IEIXJDJD KLKLMDMD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 1111101111 11101010 1011100111 1101010 110110111 1011101 1111110111 1111010 110100101 101001010 1011100111 10110010 11011011 1111 10101111011 0111010 110110101 0101101 111101111 101110110 110001101 11011010 0111111 1111110 0111110111 110110010 011111111 1111111 0111111111 111001110 011111111 1111110 0111100111 10101111 0111110101 101110011 0111111111 1101 0111110111 1101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,482 |
Words | 294 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 232 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 642 Views
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"A Woman's Shortcomings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10214/a-woman%27s-shortcomings>.
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