Sonnet XXXVII: Pardon, Oh, Pardon

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



Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make,
Of all that strong divineness which I know
For thine and thee, an image only so
Formed of the sand, and fit to shift and break.
It is that distant years which did not take
Thy sovranty, recoiling with a blow,
Have forced my swimming brain to undergo
Their doubt and dread, and blindly to forsake
Thy purity of likeness and distort
Thy worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit:
As if a shipwrecked Pagan, safe in port,
His guardian sea-god to commemorate,
Should set a sculptured porpoise, gills a-snort
And vibrant tail, within the temple gate.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
89

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDCECE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 599
Words 106
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

All Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems | Elizabeth Barrett Browning Books

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