Life in a Bottle
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
Escape me?
Never--
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And, baffled, get up and begin again,--
So the chace takes up one's life, that's all.
While, look but once from your farthest bound
At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope goes to ground
Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,
I shape me--
Ever
Removed!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 212 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFDGHHIJKLKMNMNABO |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 679 |
Words | 146 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
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"Life in a Bottle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/30372/life-in-a-bottle>.
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