Analysis of Sonnet 13 - And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

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



And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light on each?—
I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach
My hand to hold my spirit so far off
From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof
In words, of love hid in me out of reach.
Nay, let the silence of my womanhood
Commend my woman-love to thy belief,—
Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,
And rend the garment of my life, in brief,
By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,
Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief


Scheme ABBAACDAEFGFGF
Poetic Form
Metre 0111110011 0111110101 0101110111 01101011111 1111111101 1111110111 111111111 0111101111 110101110 0111011101 101111101 0101011101 10111010 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 597
Words 118
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 456
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

35 sec read
213

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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