** Beloved, my Beloved, when I thinkThat thou wast in the world a year ago,What time I sat alone here in the snowAnd saw no footprint, heard the silence sinkNo…
Posts published in “Elizabeth Barrett Browning Poems”
XXI Say over again, and yet once over again,That thou dost love me. Though the word repeatedShould seem ‘a cuckoo-song,’ as thou dost treat it,Remember, never to the hill or…
XXII When our two souls stand up ***** and strong,Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,Until the lengthening wings break into fireAt either curved point,—what bitter wrongCan the earth…
XXIII Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?And would the sun for thee more coldly shineBecause of grave-damps falling round my…
XXIV Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife,Shut in upon itself and do no harmIn this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,And let us hear no sound…
XXV A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borneFrom year to year until I saw thy face,And sorrow after sorrow took the placeOf all those natural joys as lightly wornAs the…
XXVII My own Beloved, who hast lifted meFrom this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blownA life-breath, till the forehead hopefullyShines out again,…
XXVIII My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!And yet they seem alive and quiveringAgainst my tremulous hands which loose the stringAnd let them drop down on my knee to-night.This…
XXIX I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and budAbout thee, as wild vines, about a tree,Put out broad leaves, and soon there ’s nought to seeExcept the straggling green…
*** I see thine image through my tears to-night,And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. HowRefer the cause?—Beloved, is it thouOr I, who makes me sad? The acolyteAmid the chanted…
XXXI Thou comest! all is said without a word.I sit beneath thy looks, as children doIn the noon-sun, with souls that tremble throughTheir happy eyelids from an unaverredYet prodigal inward…
XXXII The first time that the sun rose on thine oathTo love me, I looked forward to the moonTo slacken all those bonds which seemed too soonAnd quickly tied to…
XXXIII Yes, call me by my pet-name! let me hearThe name I used to run at, when a child,From innocent play, and leave the cowslips piled,To glance up in some…
XXXIV With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer theeAs those, when thou shalt call me by my name—Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,Perplexed and ruffled by…
XXXVI When we met first and loved, I did not buildUpon the event with marble. Could it meanTo last, a love set pendulous betweenSorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled,Distrusting…
XXXVII Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make,Of all that strong divineness which I knowFor thine and thee, an image only soFormed of the sand, and fit to shift…
XXXVIII First time he kissed me, he but only kissedThe fingers of this hand wherewith I write;And ever since, it grew more clean and white,Slow to world-greetings, quick with its…
XXXIX Because thou hast the power and own’st the graceTo look through and behind this mask of me(Against which years have beat thus blanchinglyWith their rains), and behold my soul’s…
XLI I thank all who have loved me in their hearts,With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to allWho paused a little near the prison-wallTo hear my music in…
XLII ‘My future will not copy fair my past’—I wrote that once; and thinking at my sideMy ministering life-angel justifiedThe word by his appealing look upcastTo the white throne of…
XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends…
XLIV Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowersPlucked in the garden, all the summer throughAnd winter, and it seemed as if they grewIn this close room, nor missed the sun…
Yet, my pretty sportive friend,Little is’t to such an endThat I praise thy rareness!Other dogs may be thy peersHaply in these drooping ears,And this glossy fairness. But of thee it…
Which is the weakest thing of allMine heart can ponder?The sun, a little cloud can pallWith darkness yonder?The cloud, a little wind can moveWhere’er it listeth?The wind, a little leaf…
1He listened at the porch that day, To hear the wheel go on, and on;And then it stopped, ran back away, While through the door he brought the sun: But…