Analysis of Sonnet V: I Lift My Heavy Heart Up

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



I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,
As once Electra her sepulchral urn,
And, looking in thine eyes, I overturn
The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see
What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn
Through the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scorn
Could tread them out to darkness utterly,
It might be well perhaps. But if instead
Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow
The grey dust up,...those laurels on thine head,
O my Belovèd, will not shield thee so,
That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred
The hair beneath. Stand farther off then! go.


Scheme ABBAABCADEDEDE
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011100 11010011 010011110 0101110101 1011111101 0101110101 1010111101 1111110100 1111011101 1101110111 011110111 1110111111 11110101101 0101110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 583
Words 116
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 455
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
58

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

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