Analysis of Before
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
Let them fight it out, friend! things have gone too far.
God must judge the couple: leave them as they are
---Whichever one's the guiltless, to his glory,
And whichever one the guilt's with, to my story!
Why, you would not bid men, sunk in such a slough,
Strike no arm out further, stick and stink as now,
Leaving right and wrong to settle the embroilment,
Heaven with snaky hell, in torture and entoilment?
Who's the culprit of them? How must he conceive
God---the queen he caps to, laughing in his sleeve,
`` 'Tis but decent to profess oneself beneath her:
``Still, one must not be too much in earnest, either!''
Better sin the whole sin, sure that God observes;
Then go live his life out! Life will try his nerves,
When the sky, which noticed all, makes no disclosure,
And the earth keeps up her terrible composure.
Let him pace at pleasure, past the walls of rose,
Pluck their fruits when grape-trees graze him as he goes!
For he 'gins to guess the purpose of the garden,
With the sly mute thing, beside there, for a warden.
What's the leopard-dog-thing, constant at his side,
A leer and lie in every eye of its obsequious hide?
When will come an end to all the mock obeisance,
And the price appear that pays for the misfeasance?
So much for the culprit. Who's the martyred man?
Let him bear one stroke more, for be sure he can!
He that strove thus evil's lump with good to leaven,
Let him give his blood at last and get his heaven!
All or nothing, stake it! Trust she God or no?
Thus far and no farther? farther? be it so!
Now, enough of your chicane of prudent pauses,
Sage provisos, sub-intents and saving-clauses!
Ah, ``forgive'' you bid him? While God's champion lives,
Wrong shall be resisted: dead, why, he forgives.
But you must not end my friend ere you begin him;
Evil stands not crowned on earth, while breath is in him.
Once more---Will the wronger, at this last of all,
Dare to say, ``I did wrong,'' rising in his fall?
No?---Let go then! Both the fighters to their places!
While I count three, step you back as many paces!
Scheme | AABB XXCC DDEE FFEE GGHH CCFF IIHH JJKK LLMM NNKX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11111111111 11101011111 01010101110 001010111110 11111110101 11111010111 1010111001 1011101001 10101111101 10111110011 11101011010 111111101010 10101111101 11111111111 101110111010 001110100010 11111010111 11111111111 111110101010 101110111010 10101110111 0101010011101001 1111111011 0010111101 11101010101 11111111111 11111111110 111111101110 11101111111 11011010111 10111111010 101010101010 11111111001 11101011101 111111111011 101111111101 1110111111 11111110011 111110101110 111111111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,049 |
Words | 390 |
Sentences | 41 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 156 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:58 min read
- 64 Views
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"Before" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30323/before>.
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