Analysis of A Light Woman
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
So far as our story approaches the end,
Which do you pity the most of us three?---
My friend, or the mistress of my friend
With her wanton eyes, or me?
My friend was already too good to lose,
And seemed in the way of improvement yet,
When she crossed his path with her hunting-noose
And over him drew her net.
When I saw him tangled in her toils,
A shame, said I, if she adds just him
To her nine-and-ninety other spoils,
The hundredth for a whim!
And before my friend be wholly hers,
How easy to prove to him, I said,
An eagle's the game her pride prefers,
Though she snaps at a wren instead!
So, I gave her eyes my own eyes to take,
My hand sought hers as in earnest need,
And round she turned for my noble sake,
And gave me herself indeed.
The eagle am I, with my fame in the world,
The wren is he, with his maiden face.
---You look away and your lip is curled?
Patience, a moment's space!
For see, my friend goes shaling and white;
He eyes me as the basilisk:
I have turned, it appears, his day to night,
Eclipsing his sun's disk.
And I did it, he thinks, as a very thief:
``Though I love her---that, he comprehends---
``One should master one's passions, (love, in chief)
``And be loyal to one's friends!''
And she,---she lies in my hand as tame
As a pear late basking over a wall;
Just a touch to try and off it came;
'Tis mine,---can I let it fall?
With no mind to eat it, that's the worst!
Were it thrown in the road, would the case assist?
'Twas quenching a dozen blue-flies' thirst
When I gave its stalk a twist.
And I,---what I seem to my friend, you see:
What I soon shall seem to his love, you guess:
What I seem to myself, do you ask of me?
No hero, I confess.
'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls,
And matter enough to save one's own:
Yet think of my friend, and the burning coals
He played with for bits of stone!
One likes to show the truth for the truth;
That the woman was light is very true:
But suppose she says,---Never mind that youth!
What wrong have I done to you?
Well, any how, here the story stays,
So far at least as I understand;
And, Robert Browning, you writer of plays,
Here's a subject made to your hand!
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG HIHI JKJK LHLX MNMN OPOP QRQR BSBS TUTU VWVW XYXY |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111101001001 1111001111 111010111 1010111 1110101111 0100110101 1111110101 0101101 111110001 011111111 101010101 010101 001111100 110111111 110010101 11110101 1110111111 111010101 011111101 0110101 01011111001 011111101 110101111 100101 11111101 111101 1111011111 010111 01111110101 11101101 1110110101 0110111 011101111 1011101001 101110111 1111111 111111101 01100110101 110010111 1111101 0111111111 1111111111 1111111111 110101 111011111 010011111 1111100101 1111111 111101101 1010111101 1011110111 1111111 110110101 11111101 0101011011 10011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,210 |
Words | 443 |
Sentences | 36 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 2:15 min read
- 501 Views
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