“A Light Woman” Introduction

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“A Light Woman” Summary

“A Light Woman” Themes

• 

  Love, Friendship, and Manipulation

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• 

  Betrayal and Self-Deceit

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• 

  Gender and Hypocrisy

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Light Woman”

• Lines 1-4

  So far as our story approaches the end,
  Which do you pity the most of us three?—
  My friend, or the mistress of my friend
  With her wanton eyes, or me?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  My friend was already too good to lose,
  And seemed in the way of improvement yet,
  When she crossed his path with her hunting-noose
  And over him drew her net.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  When I saw him tangled in her toils,
  A shame, said I, if she adds just him
  To her nine-and-ninety other spoils,
  The hundredth for a whim!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  And before my friend be wholly hers,
  How easy to prove to him, I said,
  An eagle's the game her pride prefers,
  Though she snaps at a wren instead!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  So, I gave her eyes my own eyes to take,
  My hand sought hers as in earnest need,
  And round she turned for my noble sake,
  And gave me herself indeed.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  The eagle am I, with my fame in the world,
  The wren is he, with his maiden face.
  —You look away and your lip is curled?
  Patience, a moment's space!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  For see, my friend goes shaling and white;
  He eyes me as the basilisk:
  I have turned, it appears, his day to night,
  Eclipsing his sun's disk.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  And I did it, he thinks, as a very thief:
  "Though I love her—that, he comprehends—
  "One should master one's passions, (love, in chief)
  "And be loyal to one's friends!"

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-36

  And she,—she lies in my hand as tame
  As a pear late basking over a wall;
  Just a touch to try and off it came;
  'Tis mine,—can I let it fall?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-40

  With no mind to eat it, that's the worst!
  Were it thrown in the road, would the case assist?
  'Twas quenching a dozen blue-flies' thirst
  When I gave its stalk a twist.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-44

  And I,—what I seem to my friend, you see:
  What I soon shall seem to his love, you guess:
  What I seem to myself, do you ask of me?
   No hero, I confess.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 45-48

  'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls,
  And matter enough to save one's own:
  Yet think of my friend, and the burning coals
  He played with for bits of stone!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 49-52

  One likes to show the truth for the truth;
  That the woman was light is very true:
  But suppose she says,—Never mind that youth!
  What wrong have I done to you?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 53-56

  Well, any how, here the story stays,
  So far at least as I understand;
  And, Robert Browning, you writer of plays,
  Here's a subject made to your hand!

  

  

  

  

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“A Light Woman” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Irony

  

  

  

  

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“A Light Woman” 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.

• Mistress
• Wanton
• Toils
• Spoils
• Whim
• Wren
• Earnest
• Noble
• Maiden
• Shaling
• Basilisk
• Eclipsing
• Basking
• 'Twas quenching
• Quenching
• Light

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Light Woman”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“A Light Woman” Speaker

“A Light Woman” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “A Light Woman”

More “A Light Woman” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Biography of Robert Browning — Learn about the poet's life and work at the Poetry Foundation.  

  • A Reading of the Poem — Listen to the poem as read by actor Jeremy Irons.  

  • The Legacy of Robert Browning — Read an essay celebrating the bicentenary of Browning's birth.

  • Men and Women: Project Gutenberg E-Book — Read an in-depth introduction to Browning's Men and Women, in which "A Light Woman" was published, and peruse the other poems that originally appeared alongside this one.   

  • Robert Browning and Feminism — An essay exploring the ways in which some of Browning's most famous poems highlight the patriarchal double standards of Victorian society.  

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Browning

  • A Face

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  • A Toccata of Galuppi's

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  • Confessions

  • Epilogue

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  • How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix

  • Life in a Love

  • Love Among the Ruins

  • Love in a Life

  • Meeting at Night

  • My Last Duchess

  • Pictor Ignotus

  • Porphyria's Lover

  • Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

  • The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church

  • The Laboratory

  • The Last Ride Together

  • The Lost Leader

  • The Lost Mistress

  • The Patriot

  • The Pied Piper of Hamelin

  • Women and Roses