Analysis of Sonnet 18 - I never gave a lock of hair away

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



I never gave a lock of hair away
To a man, Dearest, except this to thee,
Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully,
I ring out to the full brown length and say
'Take it.' My day of youth went yesterday;
My hair no longer bounds to my foot's glee,
Nor plant I it from rose or myrtle-tree,
As girls do, any more: it only may
Now shade on two pale cheeks the mark of tears,
Taught drooping from the head that hangs aside
Through sorrow's trick. I thought the funeral-shears
Would take this first, but Love is justified,—
Take it thou,—finding pure, from all those years,
The kiss my mother left here when she died.


Scheme ABBAABBACDEDFD
Poetic Form
Metre 1101011101 1011001111 1101110100 1111011101 111111110 1111011111 1111111101 1111011101 1111110111 1101011101 1111101001 111111110 1111011111 0111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 612
Words 121
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 468
Words per stanza (avg) 115
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 08, 2023

36 sec read
166

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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