by Homer
Because God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXVII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
MY own Belovèd, who hast lifted me
From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown
A life-breath, till the forehead hopefully
Shines out again, as all the angels see, 5
Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own,
Who camest to me when the world was gone,
And I who looked for only God, found thee!
I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.
As one who stands in dewless asphodel 10
Looks backward on the tedious time he had
In the upper life, — so I, with bosom-swell,
Make witness, here, between the good and bad,
That Love, as strong as Death, retrieves as well.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXVIII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
MY letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which lose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said, — he wished to have me in his sight 5
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand … a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it! — this, … the paper’s light …
Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God’s future thundered on my past. 10
This said, I am thine — and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this … O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXIX
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
I THINK of thee! — my thoughts do twine and bud
About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,
Put out broad leaves, and soon there’s nought to see
Except the straggling green which hides the wood.
Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood 5
I will not have my thoughts instead of thee
Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly
Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,
Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,
And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee 10
Drop heavily down, — burst, shattered, everywhere!
Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee
And breathe within thy shadow a new air,
I do not think of thee — I am too near thee.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXX
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
I SEE thine image through my tears to-night,
And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How
Refer the cause? — Beloved, is it thou
Or I, who makes me sad? The acolyte
Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite 5
May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,
On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,
Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight,
As he, in his swooning ears, the choir’s Amen.
Beloved, dost thou love? or did I see all 10
The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when
Too vehement light dilated my ideal,
For my soul’s eyes? Will that light come again,
As now these tears come — falling hot and real?
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXI
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
THOU comest! all is said without a word.
I sit beneath thy looks as children do
In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through
Their happy eyelids from an unaverred
Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred 5
In that last doubt! and yet I cannot rue
The sin most, but the occasion — that we two
Should for a moment stand unministered
By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,
Thou dovelike help! and, when my fears would rise, 10
With thy broad heart serenely interpose:
Brood down with thy divine sufficiencies
These thoughts which tremble when bereft of those,
Like callow birds left desert to the skies.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
THE FIRST time that the sun rose on thine oath
To love me, I looked forward to the moon
To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon
And quickly tied to make a lasting troth.
Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe; 5
And, looking on myself, I seemed not one
For such man’s love; — more like an out-of-tune
Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth
To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste,
Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note. 10
I did not wrong myself so, but I placed
A wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float
‘Neath master-hands, from instruments defaced, —
And great souls, at one stroke, may do and doat.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXIII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
YES, call me by my pet-name! let me hear
The name I used to run at, when a child,
From innocent play, and leave the cowslips piled,
To glance up in some face that proved me dear
With the look of its eyes. I miss the clear 5
Fond voices which, being drawn and reconciled
Into the music of Heaven’s undefiled,
Call me no longer. Silence on the bier,
While I call God — call God! — So let thy mouth
Be heir to those who are now exanimate. 10
Gather the north flowers to complete the south,
And catch the early love up in the late.
Yes, call me by that name, — and I, in truth,
With the same heart, will answer and not wait.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXIV
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
WITH the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee
As those, when thou shalt call me by my name —
Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,
Perplexed and ruffled by life’s strategy?
When called before, I told how hastily 5
I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
To run and answer with the smile that came
At play last moment, and went on with me
Through my obedience. When I answer now,
I drop a grave thought, break from solitude; 10
Yet still my heart goes to thee — ponder how —
Not as to a single good, but all my good!
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
&
nbsp; That no child’s foot could run fast as this blood.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXV
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
IF I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
And be all to me? Shall I never miss
Home-talk and blessing and the common kiss
That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange,
When I look up, to drop on a new range 5
Of walls and floors, another home than this?
Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is
Filled by dead eyes too tender to know change?
That’s hardest. If to conquer love, has tried,
To conquer grief, tries more, as all things prove; 10
For grief indeed is love and grief beside.
Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love.
Yet love me — wilt thou? Open thine heart wide,
And fold within the wet wings of thy dove.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXVI
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
WHEN we met first and loved, I did not build
Upon the event with marble. Could it mean
To last, a love set pendulous between
Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled,
Distrusting every light that seemed to gild 5
The onward path, and feared to overlean
A finger even. And, though I have grown serene
And strong since then, I think that God has willed
A still renewable fear … O love, O troth …
Lest these enclaspèd hands should never hold, 10
This mutual kiss drop down between us both
As an unowned thing, once the lips being cold.
And Love, be false! if he, to keep one oath,
Must lose one joy, by his life’s star foretold.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXVII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
PARDON, oh, pardon, that my soul should make,
Of all that strong divineness which I know
For thine and thee, an image only so
Formed of the sand, and fit to shift and break.
It is that distant years which did not take 5
Thy sovranty, recoiling with a blow,
Have forced my swimming brain to undergo
Their doubt and dread, and blindly to forsake
Thy purity of likeness and distort
Thy worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit: 10
As if a shipwrecked Pagan, safe in port,
His guardian sea-god to commemorate,
Should set a sculptured porpoise, gills a-snort
And vibrant tail, within the temple-gate.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXVIII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
FIRST time he kissed me, he but only kissed
The fingers of this hand wherewith I write;
And ever since, it grew more clean and white,
Slow to world-greetings, quick with its “Oh, list,”
When the angels speak. A ring of amethyst 5
I could not wear here, plainer to my sight,
Than that first kiss. The second passed in height
The first, and sought the forehead, and half missed,
Half falling on the hair. O beyond meed!
That was the chrism of love, which love’s own crown, 10
With sanctifying sweetness, did precede.
The third upon my lips was folded down
In perfect, purple state; since when, indeed,
I have been proud and said, “My love, my own.”
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XXXIX
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
BECAUSE thou hast the power and own’st the grace
To look through and behind this mask of me
(Against which years have beat thus blanchingly
With their rains), and behold my soul’s true face,
The dim and weary witness of life’s race, — 5
Because thou hast the faith and love to see,
Through that same soul’s distracting lethargy,
The patient angel waiting for a place
In the new Heavens, — because nor sin nor woe,
Nor God’s infliction, nor death’s neighborhood, 10
Nor all which others viewing, turn to go,
Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed, —
Nothing repels thee, … Dearest, teach me so
To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XL
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
OH, yes! they love through all this world of ours!
I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth.
I have heard love talked in my early youth,
And since, not so long back but that the flowers
Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours 5
Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth
For any weeping. Polypheme’s white tooth
Slips on the nut if, after frequent showers,
The shell is over-smooth, — and not so much
Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate, 10
Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such
A lover, my Belovèd! thou canst wait
Through sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch,
And think it soon when others cry “Too late.”
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XLI
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
I THANK all who have loved me in their hearts,
With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all
Who paused a little near the prison-wall
To hear my music in its louder parts
Ere they went onward, each one to the mart’s 5
Or temple’s occupation, beyond call.
But thou, who, in my voice’s sink and fall
When the sob took it, thy divinest Art’s
Own instrument didst drop down at thy foot
To hearken what I said between my tears, … 10
Instruct me how to thank thee! Oh, to shoot
My soul’s full meaning into future years,
That they should lend it utterance, and salute
Love that endures, from Life that disappears!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XLII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“MY future will not copy fair my past” —
I wrote that once; and thinking at my side
My ministering life-angel justified
The word by his appealing look upcast
To the white throne of God, I turned at last, 5
And there, instead, saw thee, not unallied
To angels in thy soul! Then I, long tried
By natural ills, received the comfort fast,
While budding, at thy sight, my pilgrim’s staff
Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled. 10
I seek no copy now of life’s first half:
Leave here the pages with long musing curled,
And write me new my future’s epigraph,
New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIII (How do I love thee? Let me count the ways)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
HOW do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s 5
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. 10
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIV
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
BELOVED, thou hast brought me many flowers