Second Angel
Ay, a child,--Who never, praying, wept before:While, in a mother undefiled,Prayer goeth on in sleep, as trueAnd pauseless as the pulses do.
No more!The place is filled. [Angels vanish
Evil Spirit (in a Nun's garb by the bed).
Forbear that dream--forbear that dream! too near to heaven it leaned.
Nay, leave me this--but only this! 't is but a dream, sweet fiend!
Words in this poem
- garb n.
- External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech. [OF. garbe looks, countenance, grace, ornament, fr. OHG. garawi, garwi, ornament, dress. akin to E. gear. See Gear, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Second Angel is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #33363; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Second Angel, in Lady Geraldine's Courtship, and Other Poems (1844), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33363, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/barrett-browning-poems-2/second-angel.html, id L24812.
Form and metre
Second Angel is 10 lines in 5 stanzas.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABACC childA · beforeB · undefiledA · trueC · doC
- 2 B- moreB · vanish
- 4 D leanedD
- 5 D fiendD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ay, a child,-- | 3 | ··· |
| Who never, praying, wept before: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| While, in a mother undefiled, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Prayer goeth on in sleep, as true | 7 | ······· |
| And pauseless as the pulses do. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| No more! | 2 | ·· |
| The place is filled. [Angels vanish | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Evil Spirit (in a Nun's garb by the bed). | 11 | /˘/˘······· |
| Forbear that dream--forbear that dream! too near to heaven it leaned. | 15 | ˘/··˘/·····/˘·· |
| Nay, leave me this--but only this! 't is but a dream, sweet fiend! | 15 | ·····/˘········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.