Analysis of Sonnet 08 - What can I give thee back, O liberal

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



What can I give thee back, O liberal
And princely giver, who hast brought the gold
And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold,
And laid them on the outside of the-wall
For such as I to take or leave withal,
In unexpected largesse? am I cold,
Ungrateful, that for these most manifold
High gifts, I render nothing back at all?
Not so; not cold,—but very poor instead.
Ask God who knows. For frequent tears have run
The colors from my life, and left so dead
And pale a stuff, it were not fitly done
To give the same as pillow to thy head.
Go farther! let it serve to trample on.


Scheme ABBCABBCDEDEDF
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111100 0101011101 0101110101 0111011101 111111111 001001111 010111110 1111010111 1111110101 1111110111 0101110111 010110111 1101110111 1101111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 578
Words 115
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 445
Words per stanza (avg) 111
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
71

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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