Analysis of Fears And Scruples
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
Here's my case. Of old I used to love him.
This same unseen friend, before I knew:
Dream there was none like him, none above him,--
Wake to hope and trust my dream was true.
Loved I not his letters full of beauty?
Not his actions famous far and wide?
Absent, he would know I vowed him duty,
Present, he would find me at his side.
Pleasant fancy! for I had but letters,
Only knew of actions by hearsay:
He himself was busied with my betters;
What of that? My turn must come some day.
'Some day' proving--no day! Here's the puzzle.
Passed and passed my turn is. Why complain?
He's so busied! If I could but muzzle
People's foolish mouths that give me pain!
'Letters?' (hear them!) 'You a judge of writing?
Ask the experts!--How they shake the head
O'er these characters, your friend's inditing--
Call them forgery from A to Z !
'Actions? Where's your certain proof' (they bother)
'He, of all you find so great and good,
He, he only, claims this, that, the other
Action--claimed by men, a multitude?'
I can simply wish I might refute you,
Wish my friend would,--by a word, a wink,--
Bid me stop that foolish mouth,--you brute you!
He keeps absent,--why, I cannot think.
Never mind! Tho' foolishness may flout me.
One thing's sure enough; 'tis neither frost,
No, nor fire, shall freeze or burn from out me
Thanks for truth--tho' falsehood, gained--tho' lost.
All my days, I'll go the softlier, sadlier,
For that dream's sake! How forget the thrill
Thro' and thro' me as I thought, 'The gladlier
Lives my friend because I love him still!'
Ah, but there's a menace some one utters!
'What and if your friend at home play tricks?
Peep at hide-and-seek behind the shutters?
Mean your eyes should pierce thro' solid bricks?
'What and if he, frowning, wake you, dreamy?
Lay on you the blame that bricks--conceal?
Say '_At least I saw who did not see me,
Does see now, and presently shall feel_'?'
'Why, that makes your friend a monster!' say you;
'Had his house no window? At first nod,
Would you not have hailed him?' Hush, I pray you!
What if this friend happen to be--God?
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IXIC JXJX BKBK CLCL JMJM ENEN CXCG BOBO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 1111111111 110110111 1111111011 111011111 1111101110 111010101 1011111110 101111111 1010111110 10111011 1011101110 111111111 1110111010 101111101 1110111110 101011111 1011101110 101011101 101100111 111001011 1011101110 111111101 1110111010 10111010 1110111011 111110101 1111101111 111011101 1011100111 111011101 11101111111 11111111 1111101100 111110101 101111101 111011111 1110101110 101111111 1110101010 111111101 1011101110 111011101 1111111111 111010011 1111101011 111110111 1111111111 111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,030 |
Words | 387 |
Sentences | 42 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 128 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 07, 2023
- 1:57 min read
- 144 Views
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"Fears And Scruples" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30348/fears-and-scruples>.
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