Analysis of Sonnet IX: Can It Be Right to Give

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



Can it be right to give what I can give?
To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears
As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
Re-sighing on my lips renunciative
Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live
For all thy adjurations? O my fears,
That this can scarce be right! We are not peers,
So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve,
That givers of such gifts as mine are, must
Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas!
I will not soil thy purple with my dust,
Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass,
Nor give thee any love--which were unjust.
Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.


Scheme ABCADCCEFGFGFG
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111111 1111010111 1111010101 1101111 1101011111 1111111 1111111111 1111001101 1101111111 110101101 1111110111 1111011101 1111011001 0111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 600
Words 116
Sentences 9
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) 114
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
107

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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