Twice

• Twice has a lyrical quality with a gospel-like chorus
• Twice as a title links to rebirth, a second life or she gave her heart twice
• " I took my heart in my hand" is a gentle phrasing for a violent action and opens the poem with unrequited love
• "woman's words are weak" is mocking him and insulting herself
• "friendly smile" shows surface level emotion, unrequited platonic love but he has her heart which makes her vulnerable
• "critical eye" male judgement, seeing what he wants to see
• "unripe" is a reoccurring motif of women as fruit, men only want women at certain points, fertility related, age gap wasn't problematic in Victorian times
• "my broken heart in my hand" needs god to repair her heart
• "refine with fire its gold" "purge thou its dross away" fixing her heart with heavenly fire, link to Japanese pottery and fixing it, something new being born out of fire, removing impurities
• What themes does twice link to?

  loss and suffering
• "As you set it down it broke, but I did not wince" refuses to show him the damage he's done to her
• God helps her live again in twice
• The title implies that the speaker has given her love twice, first to a man who says she isn't ready for a relationship then to God after the man had broke her heart