Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ASOLANDO: WHITE WITCHCRAFT by ROBERT BROWNING

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF YOU AND I COULD CHANGE TO BEASTS, WHAT BEAST SHOULD
Last Line: "BUT SEE HIS EYES THAT FOLLOW MINE -- LOVE LASTS THERE, ANYHOW."
Subject(s): ANIMALS;

IF you and I could change to beasts, what beast should either be?
Shall you and I play Jove for once? Turn fox then, I decree!
Shy wild sweet stealer of the grapes! Now do your worst on me!

And thus you think to spite your friend -- turned
loathsome? What, a toad?
So, all men shrink and shun me! Dear men, pursue your road!
Leave but my crevice in the stone, a reptile's fit abode!

Now say your worst, Canidia! "He's loathsome, I allow:
There may or may not lurk a pearl beneath his puckered brow:
But see his eyes that follow mine -- love lasts there, anyhow."



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