“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Introduction

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“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Summary

“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Themes

• 

  Seduction and Betrayal

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Song of Faith Forsworn”

• Lines 1-6

  Take back your suit.
  It came when I was weary and distraught
  With hunger. Could I guess the fruit you brought?
  I ate in mere desire of any food,
  Nibbled its edge, and nowhere found it good.
  Take back your suit.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-12

  Take back your love.
  It is a bird poach’d from my neighbor’s wood:
  Its wings are wet with tears, its beak with blood.
  'Tis a strange fowl with feathers like a crow:
  Death's raven, it may be, for all we know.
  Take back your love.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

  Take back your gifts.
  False is the hand that gave them; and the mind
  That plann’d them, as a hawk spread in the wind
  To poise and snatch the trembling mouse below,
  To ruin where it dares—and then to go.
  Take back your gifts.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-24

  Take back your vows.
  Elsewhere you trimm’d and taught these lamps to burn;
  You bring them stale and dim to serve my turn.
  You lit those candles in another shrine,
  Gutter’d and cold you offer them on mine.
  Take back your vows.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-27

  Take back your words.
  What is your love? Leaves on a woodland plain,
  Where some are running and where some remain.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 28-30

  What is your faith? Straws on a mountain height,
  Dancing like demons on Walpurgis night.
  Take back your words.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 31-36

  Take back your lies.
  Have them again: they wore a rainbow face,
  Hollow with sin and leprous with disgrace:
  Their tongue was like a mellow turret bell
  To toll hearts burning into wide-lipp’d hell.
  Take back your lies.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-42

  Take back your kiss.
  Shall I be meek, and lend my lips again
  To let this adder daub them with his stain?
  Shall I turn cheek to answer, when I hate?
  You kiss like Judas in the garden gate!
  Take back your kiss.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 43-48

  Take back delight,
  A paper boat launch’d on a heaving pool
  To please a child, and folded by a fool;
  The wild elms roar’d: it sail’d—a yard or more.
  Out went our ship, but never came to shore.
  Take back delight.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 49-54

  Take back your wreath.
  Has it done service on a fairer brow?
  Fresh, was it folded round her bosom snow?
  Her cast-off weed my breast will never wear:
  Your word is "love me." My reply, "despair!"
  Take back your wreath.

  

  

  

  

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“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Symbols

• 

  The Adder

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• 

  The Raven

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“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Forsworn
• Suit
• Distraught
• Poach'd
• Poise
• Trimm'd
• Stale
• Gutter'd
• Running
• Faith
• Straws
• Walpurgis night
• Rainbow
• Leprous
• Turret
• Adder
• Daub
• Wreath
• Fairer
• Weed

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Song of Faith Forsworn”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Speaker

“A Song of Faith Forsworn” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “A Song of Faith Forsworn”

More “A Song of Faith Forsworn” Resources

• External Resources

  • More on the Poet — A brief biography of Lord de Tabley, along with two of his other poems, via the University of Toronto.

  • Criticism of the Poet — In this (slightly harsh) critical introduction, a writer assesses Lord de Tabley's work a generation after the poet's death.

  • A Full-Length Biography — Check out a book-length biography of Lord de Tabley from 1903.

  • Courtship in Victorian England — For context on romance and courtship in the age the poem is set in, watch this Weird History video on "What Dating Was Like In the Victorian Era."

  • More on Victorian Love — Watch an Absolute History video on love in Victorian times.