Analysis of Two In The Campagna
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
I wonder do you feel to-day
As I have felt since, hand in hand,
We sat down on the grass, to stray
In spirit better through the land,
This morn of Rome and May?
For me, I touched a thought, I know,
Has tantalized me many times,
(Like turns of thread the spiders throw
Mocking across our path) for rhymes
To catch at and let go.
Help me to hold it! First it left
The yellowing fennel, run to seed
There, branching from the brickwork's cleft,
Some old tomb's ruin: yonder weed
Took up the floating wet,
Where one small orange cup amassed
Five beetles,---blind and green they grope
Among the honey-meal: and last,
Everywhere on the grassy slope
I traced it. Hold it fast!
The champaign with its endless fleece
Of feathery grasses everywhere!
Silence and passion, joy and peace,
An everlasting wash of air---
Rome's ghost since her decease.
Such life here, through such lengths of hours,
Such miracles performed in play,
Such primal naked forms of flowers,
Such letting nature have her way
While heaven looks from its towers!
How say you? Let us, O my dove,
Let us be unashamed of soul,
As earth lies bare to heaven above!
How is it under our control
To love or not to love?
I would that you were all to me,
You that are just so much, no more.
Nor yours nor mine, nor slave nor free!
Where does the fault lie? What the core
O' the wound, since wound must be?
I would I could adopt your will,
See with your eyes, and set my heart
Beating by yours, and drink my fill
At your soul's springs,---your part my part
In life, for good and ill.
No. I yearn upward, touch you close,
Then stand away. I kiss your cheek,
Catch your soul's warmth,---I pluck the rose
And love it more than tongue can speak---
Then the good minute goes.
Already how am I so far
Out of that minute? Must I go
Still like the thistle-ball, no bar,
Onward, whenever light winds blow,
Fixed by no friendly star?
Just when I seemed about to learn!
Where is the thread now? Off again!
The old trick! Only I discern---
Infinite passion, and the pain
Of finite hearts that yearn.
* 1 Herb with yellow flowers and seeds supposed
* to be medicinal.
Scheme | ABABA CDCDC EFEFX GHGHG IJIJI KAKAK LMLML NONON PQPQP XRSRS TCTCT UXUXU XX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 11111101 11110111 01010101 111101 11110111 1101101 11110101 100110111 111011 11111111 010010111 1101011 11110101 110101 11110101 11010111 01010101 1010101 111111 00111101 11001010 10010101 1010111 111001 111111110 11000101 110101110 11010101 11011110 11111111 1110111 111111001 111101001 111111 11110111 11111111 11111111 11011101 1011111 11110111 11110111 10110111 11111111 011101 11110111 11011111 11111101 01111111 101101 01011111 11110111 11010111 10010111 111101 11110111 11011101 01110101 10010001 11111 1110100101 110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,149 |
Words | 411 |
Sentences | 39 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 2 |
Lines Amount | 62 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 113 Views
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"Two In The Campagna" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30439/two-in-the-campagna>.
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