Sonnet XVIII: I Never Gave a Lock of Hair

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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
110

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDEDFD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 616
Words 119
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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