Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  In murtherous woman-war, by fierce red hands

  Kept savage by the night. For every wife

  Shall slay a husband, dyeing deep in blood

  The sword of a double edge — (I wish indeed

  As fair a marriage-joy to all my foes!)

  One bride alone shall fail to smite to death

  The head upon her pillow, touched with love,

  Made impotent of purpose and impelled

  To choose the lesser evil — shame on her cheeks,

  Than blood-guilt on her hands: which bride shall bear

  A royal race in Argos. Tedious speech

  Were needed to relate particulars

  Of these things; ‘tis enough that from her seed

  Shall spring the strong He, famous with the bow,

  Whose arm shall break my fetters off. Behold,

  My mother Themis, that old Titaness,

  Delivered to me such an oracle —

  But how and when, I should be long to speak,

  And thou, in hearing, wouldst not gain at all.

  Io. Eleleu, eleleu!

  How the spasm and the pain

  And the fire on the brain

  Strike, burning me through!

  How the sting of the curse, all aflame as it flew,

  Pricks me onward again!

  How my heart in its terror is spurning my breast,

  And my eyes, like the wheels of a chariot, roll round!

  I am whirled from my course, to the east, to the west,

  In the whirlwind of frenzy all madly inwound —

  And my mouth is unbridled for anguish and hate,

  And my words beat in vain, in wild storms of unrest,

  On the sea of my desolate fate.

  [Io rushes out.]

  Strophe.

  Chorus. Oh, wise was he, oh, wise was he

  Who first within his spirit knew

  And with his tongue declared it true

  That love comes best that comes unto

  The equal of degree!

  And that the poor and that the low

  Should seek no love from those above,

  Whose souls are fluttered with the flow

  Of airs about their golden height,

  Or proud because they see arow

  Ancestral crowns of light.

  Antistrophe.

  Oh, never, never may ye, Fates,

  Behold me with your awful eyes

  Lift mine too fondly up the skies

  Where Zeus upon the purple waits!

  Nor let me step too near — too near

  To any suitor, bright from heaven:

  Because I see, because I fear

  This loveless maiden vexed and sad

  By this fell curse of Herè, driven

  On wanderings dread and drear.

  Epode.

  Nay, grant an equal troth instead

  Of nuptial love, to bind me by!

  It will not hurt, I shall not dread

  To meet it in reply.

  But let not love from those above

  Revert and fix me, as I said,

  With that inevitable Eye!

  I have no sword to fight that fight,

  I have no strength to tread that path,

  I know not if my nature hath

  The power to bear, I cannot see

  Whither from Zeus’s infinite

  I have the power to flee.

  Prometheus. Yet Zeus, albeit most absolute of will,

  Shall turn to meekness — such a marriage-rite

  He holds in preparation, which anon

  Shall thrust him headlong from his gerent seat

  Adown the abysmal void, and so the curse

  His father Chronos muttered in his fall,

  As he fell from his ancient throne and cursed,

  Shall be accomplished wholly. No escape

  From all that ruin shall the filial Zeus

  Find granted to him from any of his gods,

  Unless I teach him. I the refuge know,

  And I, the means. Now, therefore, let him sit

  And brave the imminent doom, and fix his faith

  On his supernal noises, hurtling on

  With restless hand the bolt that breathes out fire;

  For these things shall not help him, none of them,

  Nor hinder his perdition when he falls

  To shame, and lower than patience: such a foe

  He doth himself prepare against himself,

  A wonder of unconquerable hate,

  An organizer of sublimer fire

  Than glares in lightnings, and of grander sound

  Than aught the thunder rolls, out-thundering it,

  With power to shatter in Poseidon’s fist

  The trident-spear which, while it plagues the sea,

  Doth shake the shores around it. Ay, and Zeus,

  Precipitated thus, shall learn at length

  The difference betwixt rule and servitude.

  Chorus. Thou makest threats for Zeus of thy desires.

  Prometheus. I tell you, all these things shall be fulfilled.

  Even so as I desire them.

  Chorus. Must we then

  Look out for one shall come to master Zeus?

  Prometheus. These chains weigh lighter than his sorrows shall.

  Chorus. How art thou not afraid to utter such words?

  Prometheus. What should I fear who cannot die?

  Chorus. But he

  Can visit thee with dreader woe than death’s.

  Prometheus. Why, let him do it! I am here, prepared

  For all things and their pangs.

  Chorus. The wise are they

  Who reverence Adrasteia.

  Prometheus. Reverence thou,

  Adore thou, flatter thou, whomever reigns,

  Whenever reigning! but for me, your Zeus

  Is less than nothing. Let him act and reign

  His brief hour out according to his will —

  He will not, therefore, rule the gods too long.

  But lo! I see that courier-god of Zeus,

  That new-made menial of the new-crowned king:

  He doubtless comes to announce to us something new.

  Hermes enters.

  Hermes. I speak to thee, the sophist, the talker-down

  Of scorn by scorn, the sinner against gods,

  The reverencer of men, the thief of fire —

  I speak to thee and adjure thee! Zeus requires

  Thy declaration of what marriage-rite

  Thus moves thy vaunt and shall hereafter cause

  His fall from empire. Do not wrap thy speech

  In riddles, but speak clearly! Never cast

  Ambiguous paths, Prometheus, for my feet,

  Since Zeus, thou mayst perceive, is scarcely won

  To mercy by such means.

  Prometheus. A speech well-mouthed

  In the utterance, and full-minded in the sense,

  As doth befit a servant of the gods!

  New gods, ye newly reign, and think forsooth

  Ye dwell in towers too high for any dart

  To carry a wound there! — have I not stood by

  While two kings fell from thence? and shall I not

  Behold the third, the same who rules you now,

  Fall, shamed to sudden ruin? — Do I seem

  To tremble and quail before your modern gods?

  Far be it from me! — For thyself, depart,

  Retread thy steps in haste. To all thou hast asked

  I answer nothing.

  Hermes. Such a wind of pride

  Impelled thee of yore full-sail upon these rocks.

  Prometheus. I would not barter — learn thou soothly that!-

  My suffering for thy service. I maintain

  It is a nobler thing to serve these rocks

  Than live a faithful slave to father Zeus.

  Thus upon scorners I retort their scorn.

  Hermes. It seems that thou dost glory in th
y despair.

  Prometheus. I glory? would my foes did glory so,

  And I stood by to see them! — naming whom,

  Thou are not unremembered.

  Hermes. Dost thou charge

  Me also with the blame of thy mischance?

  Prometheus. I tell thee I loathe the universal gods,

  Who for the good I gave them rendered back

  The ill of their injustice.

  Hermes. Thou art mad —

  Thou are raving, Titan, at the fever-height.

  Prometheus. If it be madness to abhor my foes,

  May I be mad!

  Hermes. If thou wert prosperous

  Thou wouldst be unendurable.

  Prometheus. Alas!

  Hermes. Zeus knows not that word.

  Prometheus. But maturing Time

  Teaches all things.

  Hermes. Howbeit, thou hast not learnt

  The wisdom yet, thou needest.

  Prometheus. If I had,

  I should not talk thus with a slave like thee.

  Hermes. No answer thou vouchsafest, I believe,

  To the great Sire’s requirement.

  Prometheus. Verily

  I owe him grateful service — and should pay it.

  Hermes. Why, thou dost mock me, Titan, as I stood

  A child before thy face.

  Prometheus. No child, forsooth,

  But yet more foolish than a foolish child,

  If thou expect that I should answer aught

  Thy Zeus can ask. No torture from his hand

  Nor any machination in the world

  Shall force mine utterance ere he loose, himself,

  These cankerous fetters from me. For the rest,

  Let him now hurl his blanching lightnings down,

  And with his white-winged snows and mutterings deep

  Of subterranean thunders mix all things,

  Confound them in disorder. None of this

  Shall bend my sturdy will and make me speak

  The name of his dethroner who shall come.

  Hermes. Can this avail thee? Look to it!

  Prometheus. Long ago

  It was looked forward to, precounselled of.

  Hermes. Vain god, take righteous courage! dare for once

  To apprehend and front thine agonies

  With a just prudence.

  Prometheus. Vainly dost thou chafe

  My soul with exhortation, as yonder sea

  Goes beating on the rock. Oh, think no more

  That I, fear-struck by Zeus to a woman’s mind,

  Will supplicate him, loathèd as he is,

  With feminine upliftings of my hands,

  To break these chains. Far from me be the thought!

  Hermes. I have indeed, methinks, said much in vain,

  For still thy heart beneath my showers of prayers

  Lies dry and hard — nay, leaps like a young horse

  Who bites against the new bit in his teeth,

  And tugs and struggles against the new-tried rein —

  Still fiercest in the feeblest thing of all,

  Which sophism is; since absolute will disjoined

  From perfect mind is worse than weak. Behold,

  Unless my words persuade thee, what a blast

  And whirlwind of inevitable woe

  Must sweep persuasion through thee! For at first

  The Father will split up this jut of rock

  With the great thunder and the bolted flame

  And hide thy body where a hinge of stone

  Shall catch it like an arm; and when thou hast passed

  A long black time within, thou shalt come out

  To front the sun while Zeus’s winged hound,

  The strong carnivorous eagle, shall wheel down

  To meet thee, self-called to a daily feast,

  And set his fierce beak in thee and tear off

  The long rags of thy flesh and batten deep

  Upon thy dusky liver. Do not look

  For any end moreover to this curse

  Or ere some god appear, to accept thy pangs

  On his own head vicarious, and descend

  With unreluctant step the darks of hell

  And gloomy abysses around Tartarus.

  Then ponder this — this threat is not a growth

  Of vain invention; it is spoken and meant;

  King Zeus’s mouth is impotent to lie,

  Consummating the utterance by the act;

  So, look to it, thou! take heed, and nevermore

  Forget good counsel, to indulge self-will.

  Chorus. Our Hermes suits his reasons to the times;

  At least I think so, since he bids thee drop

  Self-will for prudent counsel. Yield to him!

  When the wise err, their wisdom makes their shame.

  Prometheus. Unto me the foreknower, this mandate of power

  He cries, to reveal it.

  What’s strange in my fate, if I suffer from hate

  At the hour that I feel it?

  Let the locks of the lightning, all bristling and whitening,

  Flash, coiling me round,

  While the æther goes surging ‘neath thunder and scourging

  Of wild winds unbound!

  Let the blast of the firmament whirl from its place

  The earth rooted below,

  And the brine of the ocean, in rapid emotion,

  Be driven in the face

  Of the stars up in heaven, as they walk to and fro!

  Let him hurl me anon into Tartarus — on —

  To the blackest degree,

  With Necessity’s vortices strangling me down;

  But he cannot join death to a fate meant for me!

  Hermes. Why, the words that he speaks and the thoughts that he thinks

  Are maniacal! — add,

  If the Fate who hath bound him should loose not the links,

  He were utterly mad.

  Then depart ye who groan with him,

  Leaving to moan with him —

  Go in haste! lest the roar of the thunder anearing

  Should blast you to idiocy, living and hearing.

  Chorus. Change thy speech for another, thy thought for a new,

  If to move me and teach me indeed be thy care!

  For thy words swerve so far from the loyal and true

  That the thunder of Zeus seems more easy to bear.

  How! couldst teach me to venture such vileness? behold!

  I choose, with this victim, this anguish foretold!

  I recoil from the traitor in hate and disdain,

  And I know that the curse of the treason is worse

  Than the pang of the chain.

  Hermes. Then remember, O nymphs, what I tell you before,

  Nor, when pierced by the arrows that Até will throw you,

  Cast blame on your fate and declare evermore

  That Zeus thrust you on anguish he did not foreshow you.

  Nay, verily, nay! for ye perish anon

  For your deed — by your choice. By no blindness of doubt,

  No abruptness of doom, but by madness alone,

  In the great net of Até, whence none cometh out,

  Ye are wound and undone.

  Prometheus. Ay! in act now, in word now no more,

  Earth is rocking in space.

  And the thunders crash up with a roar upon roar,

  And the eddying lightnings flash fire in my face,

  And the whirlwinds are whirling the dust round and round,

  And the blasts of the winds universal leap free

  And blow each upon each with a passion of sound,

  And æther goes mingling in storm with the sea.

  Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread,

  From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along.

  O my mother’s fair glory! O Æther, enringing

  All eyes with the sweet common light of thy bringing!

  Dost see how I suffe
r this wrong?

  Poems, 1838-50

  With the 1838 publication of The Seraphim and Other Poems, Barrett Browning entered the mature period of her writing, now appearing under her own name. She opposed slavery and the barbarity of slavers, announcing her support for the abolitionist cause in the poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point. In the poem she describes a slave woman who is whipped, raped, and made pregnant as she curses the slavers. However, the poet’s father believed that Abolitionism would ruin his business and the publication of the poem may have led to a rift between the poet and her father. She wrote to John Ruskin in 1855, “I belong to a family of West Indian slaveholders, and if I believed in curses, I should be afraid”. After the Jamaican slave uprising of 1831–2 her father and uncle continued to treat the slaves humanely, but the family were later saddled with thirty-eight years of chancery litigation over the division of land and other property. Following lawsuits and the abolition of slavery, Mr. Barrett incurred great financial and investment losses that forced him to sell Hope End. Although the family were never poor, the place was seized and put up for sale to satisfy creditors. Always secret in his financial dealings, he would not discuss his situation and the family was haunted by the idea that they might have to move to Jamaica.

  In 1838 Barrett Browning was introduced to other literary figures, including William Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle. She continued to write, contributing The Romaunt of Margaret, The Romaunt of the Page, The Poet’s Vow and other pieces to various periodicals. She corresponded with other writers, including Mary Russell Mitford, who would become a close friend and who would support Elizabeth’s literary ambitions. At this time the poet was struck with illness again, with symptoms suggesting to modern our understanding tuberculosis ulceration of the lungs. At her physician’s insistence, she moved from London to Torquay, on the Devonshire coast. Then two tragedies struck, with her brother Samuel dying of a fever in Jamaica in February 1840 and her close brother Edward, who went with her to Torquay, was drowned in a sailing accident in July. These sad events had a serious effect on her already fragile health and reflect the mournful subject tone of some of her poems in this period.