Analysis of When Did You Learn

                  "When Did You Learn?!"
                   (A Birthday Portia Poem)

"When did you learn, Portia, to love as you do ---   
        was it yesterday --- or, has it always been true?

When did you learn, Portia, to be as you are ---
        shining ever so shining, as bright as a star ---
        When did you learn?

Was it during the time of your gestation with me --
        - Was
it during the time of Harriett's (Portia's mother)
        gestation
with you --- was it before seasons began to
        accrue ---
When did you learn, Portia?

When did you learn, Portia, that indeed 'the quality
        of mercy is not strained' by thee to me --- never it
        seems
yesterday, never it seems today, never it seems
        tomorrow,
so it seems today.  When did you learn?

When did you learn to love, Portia, as you do --- in
        such a
pristine manner --- through and through --- through
        all
my discordant moments --- in my forty and five
        years now
--- was it somewhere during your sixty and nine
       years now,
       as of today, that your love grew so deep as to
       become an
       infinite stay, as to create an everlasting way for me
       to always
       find myself marveling at your display of love for me
       which
       you always show --- How do you know such an
       unending                                                                                         
       concern --- When did you learn, or did simply, you
       always
know?!  Me thinks, always."  

Thomas M. Scott, Th. D.                               
                                                           September 27, 1993
          ©