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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sonnets from the Portuguese 20: Beloved, my Beloved

Beloved, my Beloved, when I think
That thou wast in the world a year ago,
What time I sate alone here in the snow
And saw no footprint, heard the silence sink
No moment at thy voice ... but, link by link,
Went counting all my chains, as if that so
They never could fall off at any blow
Struck by thy possible hand ... why, thus I drink
Of life’s great cup of wonder! Wonderful,
Never to feel thee thrill the day or night
With personal act or speech,—nor ever cull
Some prescience of thee with the blossoms white
Thou sawest growing! Atheists are as dull,
Who cannot guess God’s presence out of sight.

#EnglishWriters #Imagery #Love #Metaphor #Relationships #Religion #Romantic#Love #Sonnet #Victorian & Doubt, Faith

Other works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning...
Sonnet XXXIX

Because thou hast the power and ow… To look through and behind this ma… (Against which years have beat thu… With their rains), and behold my s… The dim and weary witness of life’…
 1
Sonnet XXVI

I lived with visions for my compan… Instead of men and women, years ag… And found them gentle mates, nor t… A sweefer music than they played t… But soon their trailing purple was…
XLII

' My future will not copy fair my… I wrote that once; and thinking at… My ministering life-angel justifie… The word by his appealing look upc… To the white throne of God, I tur…
 1
Sonnet XXXIV

With the same heart, I said, I’ll… As those, when thou shalt call me… Lo, the vain promise! is the same,… Perplexed and ruffled by life’s st… When called before, I told how ha…
XIX

The soul’s Rialto hath its mercha… I barter curl for curl upon that m… And from my poet’s forehead to my… Receive this lock which outweighs… As purply black, as erst to Pinda…
Sonnet XXXVI: When We Met First

When we met first and loved, I di… Upon the event with marble. Could… To last, a love set pendulous betw… Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather… Distrusting every light that seeme…
XI

And therefore if to love can be de… I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as… As these you see, and trembling kn… To bear the burden of a heavy hear… This weary minstrel-life that once…
XXI

Say over again, and yet once over… That thou dost love me. Though th… Should seem ‘ a cuckoo-song,’ as t… Remember, never to the hill or pla… Valley and wood, without her cucko…
 1
Sonnet XXX

I see thine image through my tears… And yet to-day I saw thee smiling… Refer the cause?—Beloved, is it t… Or I, who makes me sad? The acoly… Amid the chanted joy and thankful…
 1
Sonnets from the Portuguese 2: But only three in all God’s universe

But only three in all God’s unive… Have heard this word thou hast sai… Thee speaking, and me listening! a… One of us ... that was God, ... a… So darkly on my eyelids, as to ame…
Rosalind’s Scroll

I LEFT thee last, a child at hea…    A woman scarce in years: I come to thee, a solemn corpse    Which neither feels nor fears. I have no breath to use in sighs;
 1
Sonnet IV

Thou hast thy calling to some pala… Most gracious singer of high poems… The dancers will break footing, fr… Of watching up thy pregnant lips f… And dost thou lift this house’s la…
Sonnet IX: Can It Be Right to Give

Can it be right to give what I ca… To let thee sit beneath the fall o… As salt as mine, and hear the sigh… Re-sighing on my lips renunciative Through those infrequent smiles wh…
XXXIX

Because thou hast the power and ow… To look through and behind this ma… (Against which years have beat thu… With their rains), and behold my s… The dim and weary witness of life’…
Minstrelsy

For ever, since my childish looks Could rest on Nature’s pictured b… For ever, since my childish tongue Could name the themes our bards ha… So long, the sweetness of their si…
 1



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