Label the rhyme scheme of the poem, beginning with a.

XXV

A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne

From year to year until I saw thy face,

And sorrow after sorrow took the place

Of all those natural joys as lightly worn

As the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turn

By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace

Were changed to long despairs, till God's own grace

Could scarcely lift above the world forlorn

My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring

And let it drop adown thy calmly great

Deep being! Fast it sinketh, as a thing

Which its own nature doth precipitate,

While thine doth close above it, mediating

Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Question

English

Joselyn Glover

6 January, 20:26

Label the rhyme scheme of the poem, beginning with a.

XXV

A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne

From year to year until I saw thy face,

And sorrow after sorrow took the place

Of all those natural joys as lightly worn

As the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turn

By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace

Were changed to long despairs, till God's own grace

Could scarcely lift above the world forlorn

My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring

And let it drop adown thy calmly great

Deep being! Fast it sinketh, as a thing

Which its own nature doth precipitate,

While thine doth close above it, mediating

Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

+1

Answers (1)

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Megan Collins · Answer 1

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This is a traditional Petrarchan Sonnet Rhyme Scheme, and even though not all lines are perfect rhymes, they are close enough.

For example the rhymes for lines 1, 4, 5, and 8 are borne, worn, turn, forlorn. "turn" is not a perfect rhyme with the 'orn' sound, but it fits in well enough to fill out the rhyme scheme.