Analysis of Sonnet II: But Only Three in All God's Universe

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



But only three in all God's universe
Have heard this word thou has said,--Himself, beside
Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied
One of us...that was God,...and laid the curse
So darkly on my eyelids, as to amerce
My sight from seeing thee,--that if I had died,
The deathweights, placed there, would have signified
Less absolute exclusion. Nay is worse
From God than from all others, O my friend!
Men could not part us with their worldly jars,
Nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend;
Our hands would touch for all the mountain-bars:
And, heaven being rolled between us at the end,
We should but vow the faster for the stars.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 110101110 11111110101 11001100001 11111101 110111111 11110111111 01111110 110010111 1111110111 1111111101 101111011 10111110101 010101011101 1111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 632
Words 119
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 493
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 17, 2023

36 sec read
113

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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