Analysis of Sonnet XL: Oh, Yes! They Love

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



Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!
I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth,
I have heard love talked in my early youth,
And since, not so long back but that the flowers
Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours,
Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth
For any weeping. Polypheme's white tooth
Slips on the nut if, after frequent showers,
The shell is over-smooth,-- and not so much
Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate
Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such
A lover, my Belovèd! thou canst wait
Through sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch,
And think it soon when others cry Too late.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111110 11111111 1111101101 01111111010 11011101 1101010111 11010111 11011101010 0111010111 1101110111 111010011111 0101101111 11001011111 0111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 651
Words 121
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 498
Words per stanza (avg) 118
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
98

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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