A Double Standard
Do you blame me that I loved him?If when standing all aloneI cried for bread a careless worldPressed to my lips a stone.
Do you blame me that I loved him,That my heart beat glad and free,When he told me in the sweetest tonesHe loved but only me?
Can you blame me that I did not seeBeneath his burning kissThe serpent's wiles, nor even hearThe deadly adder hiss?
About this text
A Double Standard is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #679; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, A Double Standard, in Poems (1854–1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #679, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/harper-poems/a-double-standard.html, id L10535.
Form and metre
A Double Standard is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 him · aloneA · world · stoneA
- 2 -A-A him · freeA · tones · meA
- 3 -A-A see · kissA · hear · hissA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Do you blame me that I loved him? | 8 | ········ |
| If when standing all alone | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| I cried for bread a careless world | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Pressed to my lips a stone. | 7 | ·˘····· |
| Do you blame me that I loved him, | 8 | ········ |
| That my heart beat glad and free, | 7 | ······· |
| When he told me in the sweetest tones | 9 | ······/˘· |
| He loved but only me? | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| Can you blame me that I did not see | 9 | ········· |
| Beneath his burning kiss | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The serpent's wiles, nor even hear | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The deadly adder hiss? | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.