Analysis of A Lovers' Quarrel
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
Oh, what a dawn of day!
How the March sun feels like May!
All is blue again
After last night's rain,
And the South dries the hawthorn-spray.
Only, my Love's away!
I'd as lief that the blue were grey,
Runnels, which rillets swell,
Must be dancing down the dell,
With a foaming head
On the beryl bed
Paven smooth as a hermit's cell;
Each with a tale to tell,
Could my Love but attend as well.
Dearest, three months ago!
When we lived blocked-up with snow,---
When the wind would edge
In and in his wedge,
In, as far as the point could go---
Not to our ingle, though,
Where we loved each the other so!
Laughs with so little cause!
We devised games out of straws.
We would try and trace
One another's face
In the ash, as an artist draws;
Free on each other's flaws,
How we chattered like two church daws!
What's in the `Times''?---a scold
At the Emperor deep and cold;
He has taken a bride
To his gruesome side,
That's as fair as himself is bold:
There they sit ermine-stoled,
And she powders her hair with gold.
Fancy the Pampas' sheen!
Miles and miles of gold and green
Where the sunflowers blow
In a solid glow,
And---to break now and then the screen---
Black neck and eyeballs keen,
Up a wild horse leaps between!
Try, will our table turn?
Lay your hands there light, and yearn
Till the yearning slips
Thro' the finger-tips
In a fire which a few discern,
And a very few feel burn,
And the rest, they may live and learn!
Then we would up and pace,
For a change, about the place,
Each with arm o'er neck:
'Tis our quarter-deck,
We are seamen in woeful case.
Help in the ocean-space!
Or, if no help, we'll embrace.
See, how she looks now, dressed
In a sledging-cap and vest!
'Tis a huge fur cloak---
Like a reindeer's yoke
Falls the lappet along the breast:
Sleeves for her arms to rest,
Or to hang, as my Love likes best.
Teach me to flirt a fan
As the Spanish ladies can,
Or I tint your lip
With a burnt stick's tip
And you turn into such a man!
Just the two spots that span
Half the bill of the young male swan.
Dearest, three months ago
When the mesmerizer Snow
With his hand's first sweep
Put the earth to sleep:
'Twas a time when the heart could show
All---how was earth to know,
'Neath the mute hand's to-and-fro?
Dearest, three months ago
When we loved each other so,
Lived and loved the same
Till an evening came
When a shaft from the devil's bow
Pierced to our ingle-glow,
And the friends were friend and foe!
Not from the heart beneath---
'Twas a bubble born of breath,
Neither sneer nor vaunt,
Nor reproach nor taunt.
See a word, how it severeth!
Oh, power of life and death
In the tongue, as the Preacher saith!
Woman, and will you cast
For a word, quite off at last
Me, your own, your You,---
Since, as truth is true,
I was You all the happy past---
Me do you leave aghast
With the memories We amassed?
Love, if you knew the light
That your soul casts in my sight,
How I look to you
For the pure and true
And the beauteous and the right,---
Bear with a moment's spite
When a mere mote threats the white!
What of a hasty word?
Is the fleshly heart not stirred
By a worm's pin-prick
Where its roots are quick?
See the eye, by a fly's foot blurred---
Ear, when a straw is heard
Scratch the brain's coat of curd!
Foul be the world or fair
More or less, how can I care?
'Tis the world the same
For my praise or blame,
And endurance is easy there.
Wrong in the one thing rare---
Oh, it is hard to bear!
Here's the spring back or close,
When the almond-blossom blows:
We shall have the word
In a minor third
There is none but the cuckoo knows:
Heaps of the guelder-rose!
I must bear with it, I suppose.
Could but November come,
Were the noisy birds struck dumb
At the warning slash
Of his driver
Scheme | aaxxaaa bbccbbb Ddeeddd xfggfff hhiihah jjddjjj kkllkkk ggmmggg nnoonnn ppqqppx Ddrrddd Ddssxdd tuaxtut vvwwvvv xxwwxxx yyzzyyy 1 1 ss1 1 1 x2 yy2 2 2 3 3 xx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (31%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 110111 1011111 11101 10111 0011011 101101 11110101 10111 1110101 10101 10101 111011 110111 11110111 101101 1111111 10111 00011 01110111 1110101 11110101 111101 1011111 11101 10101 00111101 111101 1111111 100101 10100101 111001 11101 11110111 111101 01100111 100101 1011101 10101 00101 01110101 11011 1011101 1110101 1111101 10101 10101 001010101 0010111 00111101 111101 1010101 111101 110101 11100101 100101 1111101 111111 001101 10111 1011 1010101 110111 11111111 111101 1010101 11111 10111 01101101 101111 10110111 101101 1011 11111 10111 10110111 111111 1011101 101101 1111101 10101 11101 10110101 1110101 0010101 110101 1010111 10111 10111 101111 1101101 00110101 100111 1011111 11111 11111 11110101 111101 10100101 111101 1111011 11111 10101 001001 110101 1011101 110101 101111 10111 11111 10110111 110111 101111 110111 1111111 10101 11111 01001101 100111 111111 101111 1010101 11101 00101 1111011 11011 11111101 110101 0010111 10101 1110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 3,890 |
Words | 736 |
Sentences | 58 |
Stanzas | 19 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 4 |
Lines Amount | 130 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 147 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 3:47 min read
- 216 Views
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"A Lovers' Quarrel" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30305/a-lovers%27-quarrel>.
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