Analysis of Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead

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



Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-damps falling round my head?
I marvelled, my Beloved, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—
But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble ? Then my soul, instead
Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!
As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
For love, to give up acres and degree,
I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111111 1111010101 0101111101 0111110111 11101111 1110010111 1111111111 1111011101 1111011101 1111111111 1101011111 1111110001 1101111001 11111101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 621
Words 122
Sentences 14
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 466
Words per stanza (avg) 123
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

36 sec read
158

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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