Analysis of Respectability
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
Dear, had the world in its caprice
Deigned to proclaim ``I know you both,
``Have recognized your plighted troth,
Am sponsor for you: live in peace!''---
How many precious months and years
Of youth had passed, that speed so fast,
Before we found it out at last,
The world, and what it fears?
How much of priceless life were spent
With men that every virtue decks,
And women models of their sex,
Society's true ornament,---
Ere we dared wander, nights like this,
Thro' wind and rain, and watch the Seine,
And feel the Boulevart break again
To warmth and light and bliss?
I know! the world proscribes not love;
Allows my finger to caress
Your lips' contour and downiness,
Provided it supply a glove.
The world's good word!---the Institute!
Guizot receives Montalembert!
Eh? Down the court three lampions flare:
Put forward your best foot!
Scheme | ABBACDDC XEEXFXXF GXAGXDXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11011111 110111 11011101 11010101 11111111 01111111 010111 11110101 111100101 01010111 01001100 11110111 110101010 0101101 110101 11010111 01110101 11101 01010101 0111010 1011 1101111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 855 |
Words | 152 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 216 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 46 sec read
- 204 Views
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"Respectability" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30407/respectability>.
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