O Lyric Love
O lyric Love, half angel and half bird,And all a wonder and a wild desire--Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,Took sanctuary within the holier blue,And sang a kindred soul out to his face--Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart--When the first summons from the darkling earthReached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue,And bared them of the glory--to drop down,To toil for man, to suffer or to die--This is the same voice; can thy soul know change?Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help!Never may I commence my song, my dueTo God who best taught song by gift of thee,Except with bent head and beseeching hand--That still, despite the distance and the dark,What was, again may be; some interchangeOf grace, some splendor once thy very thought,Some benediction anciently thy smile:--Never conclude, but raising hand and head.Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearnFor all hope, all sustainment, all reward,Their utmost up and on--so blessing backIn those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home,Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud,Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall!
Words in this poem
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- conclude v. t.
- To shut up; to inclose. [L. concludere, conclusum; con- + claudere to shut. See Close, v. t.]
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- sustainment n.
- The act of sustaining; maintenance; support. Milton. Lowell.
- wanness n.
- The quality or state of being wan; a sallow, dead, pale color; paleness; pallor; as, the wanness of the cheeks after a fever.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O Lyric Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Browning, O Lyric Love, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/o-lyric-love.html, id L25117.
Form and metre
O Lyric Love is 26 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ---A---A-BC-AB--C--------- bird · desire · sun · blueA · face · heart · earth · blueA · down · dieB · changeC · help · dueA · theeB · hand · dark · interchangeC · thought · smile · head · yearn · reward · back · home · proud · fall
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. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O lyric Love, half angel and half bird, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And all a wonder and a wild desire-- | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Took sanctuary within the holier blue, | 11 | ·/˘·˘···/˘· |
| And sang a kindred soul out to his face-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When the first summons from the darkling earth | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| And bared them of the glory--to drop down, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To toil for man, to suffer or to die-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This is the same voice; can thy soul know change? | 10 | ·········· |
| Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Never may I commence my song, my due | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| To God who best taught song by gift of thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| Except with bent head and beseeching hand-- | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That still, despite the distance and the dark, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| What was, again may be; some interchange | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Some benediction anciently thy smile: | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| --Never conclude, but raising hand and head. | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn | 10 | /˘···˘/··· |
| For all hope, all sustainment, all reward, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Their utmost up and on--so blessing back | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
On this poem
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.