Twice Flashcards
what does the title of this poem refer to?
The title refers to the act of offering her love twice, with different outcomes.
what is the speaker of this poem?
- The male lover is cruel/careless—perhaps not mature enough for love?
- The poem suggests men are to blame for relationship failures, challenging traditional views that blame women.
- The speaker, a woman, gives her heart to a man, with themes of spiritual love and self-love.
- She is brave, willing to live or die.
what is the language of this poem?
- Many of her poems focus on forsaken women and challenge sexual double standards.
- Imagery: skylarks (happiness), refinement through fire, and cornflowers (male commitment).
what is the rhyme/form of this poem?
- Repetition emphasizes the need to repeat the act of offering love due to rejection.
- 6 stanzas, 8 lines each.
- Varied metrical rhythm.
- Amphimacer pattern: ‘O my love’ and ‘O my God’ (stressed at each end).
- First stanza rhyme scheme: ABACDBDC; variations follow.
- Rhyming fourth and eighth lines create resolution.
what is the context of this poem?
- Age 34, 1864?
- Fallen women: 1859–1870.
- Relationships: James Collinson (1850), John Ponett (1857), Charles Bagot Cayley (1864).
- Commentary on Victorian social hypocrisy or love for God? Rejection of Cayley leads to turning to God?
what are the themes of this poem?
- Loss/abandonment
- Earthly vs. divine love
- Religious faith
- Social standards, morals, and women’s roles
what are suitable pairings for this poem?
Memory
A Christmas Carol
What Would I Give
Goblin Market – themes of disappointment, sacrifice, and religion
“I took my heart in my hand/(O my love, O my love)./I said: let me fall or stand,/let me live or die,/”
- ‘I’ – agency.
- ‘O my love’ – biblical reference; courtly love expression, improper for women.
- ‘Fall’ – reference to fallen women.
- ‘Black mark’ – visible sin or guilt.
- ‘Scalding tears’ contrast with ‘frost of years’ – extremes of pain.
- Internal rhyme in the final line traps her in self-loathing.
- ‘Thaw the frost’ – desire to escape self-punishment.
- ‘Again’ – longing for purity after rejecting Cayley.
- The narrator has control over her heart but remains vulnerable.
- Brackets around ‘O my love’ signal earthly love, unlike later ‘O my God’.
- ‘I said’ – caesura emphasizes the speaker’s voice.
“but this once hear me speak-/(O my love, O my love)-/yet a woman’s words are weak;/you should speak, not I.”
- Passionate but outwardly reticent.
- ‘W’ alliteration and ‘s’ sibilance push for her voice to be heard.
- Passive defiance—seemingly accepting male dominance but ending with ‘I’ gives her the last word.
“you took my heart in your hand/with a friendly smile,/with a critical eye you scanned,/then set it down,/”
- Repeats but reverses opening line—shifting power to the man.
- ‘You’ and ‘your’ place blame on him.
- ‘Critical’ – sexual double standards.
- ‘Scanned’ – condescending and dismissive.
- His outward kindness contrasts with cold analysis.
- Assonant rhyme (‘friendly smile’ / ‘critical eye’) highlights deception.
- He values beauty, objectifying her.
- ‘Set it down’ – detached, emotionless rejection.
“and said: it is still unripe/better wait awhile; wait while the skylark’s pipe,/till the corn grows brown.”
- ‘Unripe’ – could imply youth or emotional unreadiness.
- Suggests she is unsuited for earthly relationships.
- ‘It’ objectifies her.
- ‘Ripe but pure’ – proto-feminist? Sexual connotation.
- ‘Skylarks’ – foreshadow joy/singing at the end.
- ‘Corn grows brown’ – could symbolize maturity or love’s death.
“as you set it down it broke-/Broke, but I did not wince;/I smiled at the speech you spoke,/at your judgement that I heard:/”
- ‘Set it down’ – Victorian reversal; she is not weak.
- She controls her emotions, showing pride.
- ‘Broke’ – violent imagery, anadiplosis (repetition).
- ‘Judgement’ – divine or human?
“but I have not often smiled/since then, nor questioned since,/ Nor cared for corn-flowers wild,/Nor sung with the singing bird.”
- She accepts rejection with strength.
- ‘Corn-flowers wild’ – link to male commitment fading.
- ‘Singing bird’ – metaphor for happiness.
- Repetition of ‘nor’ – piling misery, a turning point.
- Sibilance reflects gradual fading of past joys.
“I take my heart in my hand,/ O my God, O my God,/My broken heart in my hand:/Thou hast seen, judge Thou./”
- Refrain variation – speaker now takes control.
- ‘O my God’ – brackets removed; spiritual love is open.
- ‘Judge Thou’ – seeks divine judgement over societal views.
“My hope was written on sand,/ O my God, O my God:/Now let thy judgement stand -/ Yea, judge me now.”
- ‘On sand’ – love was fragile and impermanent.
- Biblical reference: Matthew 7:26.
- Love washes away like tears.
- ‘Judge me now’ – willing to be vulnerable for divine justice.
“this contemned of man,/this marred one heedless day,/this heart take Thou to scan/Both within and without.”
- ‘Within and without’ – full self-exposure.
- Unlike the man, God judges deeply.
- ‘Contemned’ (scorned) and ‘marred’ (damaged) – one careless day ruined her.
“Refine with fire its gold,/purge Thou its dross away-/Yea, hold it in Thy hold,/Whence none can pluck it out.”
- Gold purified by fire – rejection burns her, but she remains pure.
- Reference to baptism (Matthew 3:11).
- ‘Dross’ – impurity in metal; purity of love tested.
“I take my heart in my hand-/I shall not die, but live-/Before Thy face I stand;/I, for Thou callest such:/”
- Frequent ‘I’ – newfound security.
- Confident, defiant language.
- Broken grammar (hyphens, colons) reflects past suffering, now leading to peace.
“All that I have bring,/All that I am I give,/Smile Thou and I shall sing,/but shall not question much.”
- ‘All’ repetition – abundant love for God.
- Triumphant sibilance contrasts past pain.
- ‘All that I have I bring,/all that I am I give’ – allusion to 19th-century marriage vows (Book of Common Prayer).
- Love for God is constant, forgiving, and accepting
