Elizabeth
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Playfully SpeakingElizabeth
Browning
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Elizabeth
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ElizabethBarrettBrowningclick below for poems
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Sonnets from Portuguese
Sonnets From the PortugueseSonnet II thought once how Theocritus had sung Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, Who each one in a gracious hand appears To bear a gift for mortals, old or young; And, as I mused it in his antique tongue, I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, Those of my own life, who by turns had flung A shadow across me. Straightaway I was 'ware, So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair; And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,-- Guess now who holds thee?--Death, I said, But, there, The silver answer rang,--Not Death, but Love. Back to the top IIBut only three in all God's universe Have heard this word thou has said,--Himself, beside Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied One of us...that was God,...and laid the curse So darkly on my eyelids, as to amerce My sight from seeing thee,--that if I had died, The deathweights, placed there, would have signified Less absolute exclusion. Nay is worse From God than from all others, O my friend! Men could not part us with their worldly jars, Nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend; Our hands would touch for all the mountain-bars: And, heaven being rolled between us at the end, We should but vow the faster for the stars. Back to the top IIIUnlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart! Unlike our uses and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise On one another, as they strike athwart Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art A guest for queens to social pageantries, With gages from a hundred brighter eyes Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part Of chief musician. What hast thou to do With looking from the lattice-lights at me, A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree? The chrism is on thine head,--on mine, the dew-- And Death must dig the level where these agree. Back to the top IVThou hast thy calling to some palace-floor, Most gracious singer of high poems! where The dancers will break footing, from the care Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more. And dost thou lift this house's latch too poor For hand of thine? and canst thou think and bear To let thy music drip here unaware In folds of golden fulness at my door? Look up and see the casement broken in, The bats and owlets builders in the roof! My cricket chirps against thy mandolin. Hush, call no echo up in further proof Of desolation! there's a voice within That weeps...as thou must sing...alone, aloof. Back to the top VI lift my heavy heart up solemnly, As once Electra her sepulchral urn, And, looking in thine eyes, I overturn The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see What a great heap of grief lay hid in me, And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn Through the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scorn Could tread them out to darkness utterly, It might be well perhaps. But if instead Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow The grey dust up,...those laurels on thine head, O my Belovèd, will not shield thee so, That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred The hair beneath. Stand farther off then! go. Back to the top VIGo from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforth in thy shadow. Nevermore Alone upon the threshold of my door Of individual life, I shall command The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand Serenely in the sunshine as before, Without the sense of that which I forbore-- Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine With pulses that beat double. What I do And what I dream include thee, as the wine Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue God for myself, He hears that name of thine, And sees within my eyes the tears of two. Back to the top VIIThe face of all the world is changed, I think, Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink, Was caught up into love, and taught the whole Of life in a new rhythm. The cup of dole God gave for baptism, I am fain to drink, And praise its sweetness, Sweet, with thee anear. The names of country, heaven, are changed away From where thou art or shalt be, there or here; And this...this lute and song...loved yesterday, (The singing angels know) are only dear Because thy name moves right in what they say. Back to the top VIIIWhat can I give thee back, O liberal And princely giver, who hast brought the gold And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold, And laid them on the outside of the wall For such as I to take or leave withal, In unexpected largesse? am I cold, Ungrateful, that for these most manifold High gifts, I render nothing back at all? Not so; not cold,--but very poor instead. Ask God who knows. For frequent tears have run The colours from my life, and left so dead And pale a stuff, it were not fitly done To give the same as pillow to thy head. Go farther! let it serve to trample on. Back to the top IXCan it be right to give what I can give? To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years Re-sighing on my lips renunciative Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live For all thy adjurations? O my fears, That this can scarce be right! We are not peers, So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve, That givers of such gifts as mine are, must Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas! I will not soil thy purple with my dust, Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass, Nor give thee any love--which were unjust. Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass. Back to the top XYet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright, Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed: And love is fire. And when I say at need I love thee...mark!...I love thee--in thy sight I stand transfigured, glorified aright, With conscience of the new rays that proceed Out of my face toward thine. There's nothing low In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures Who love God, God accepts while loving so. And what I feel, across the inferior features Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show How that great work of Love enhances Nature's. Back to the top XIAnd therefore if to love can be desert, I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale As these you see, and trembling knees that fail To bear the burden of a heavy heart,-- This weary minstrel-life that once was girt To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail To pipe now 'gainst the valley nightingale A melancholy music,--why advert To these things? O Belovèd, it is plain I am not of thy worth nor for thy place! And yet, because I love thee, I obtain From that same love this vindicating grace, To live on still in love, and yet in vain,-- To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face.
XIIIndeed this very love which is my boast, And which, when rising up from breast to brow, Doth crown me with ruby large enow To draw men's eyes and prove the inner cost,-- This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost, I should not love withal, unless that thou Hadst set me an example, shown me how, When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed, And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak Of love even, as good thing of my own: Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak, And placed it by thee on a golden throne,-- And that I love (O soul, we must be meek--) Is by thee only, whom I love alone. Back to the top
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The love I bear thee, finding words enough, And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough, Between our faces, to cast light on each?-- I drop at thy feet. I cannot teach My hand to hold my spirit so far off From myself--me--that I should bring thee proof In words, of love hid in me out of reach. Nay, let the silence of my womanhood Commend my woman-love to thy belief,-- Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, And rend the garment of my life, in brief, By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief. Back to the top XIVIf thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say I love her for her smile--her look--her way Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of ease on such a day-- For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheek dry,-- A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity. Back to the top XVAccuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear Too calm and sad a face in front of thine; For we two look two ways, and cannot shine With the same sunlight on our brow and hair. On me thou lookest with no doubting care, As on a bee in a crystalline; Since sorrow hath shut me safe in love's divine And to spread wing and fly in the outer air Were most impossible failure, if I strove To fail so. But I look on thee--on thee-- Beholding, besides love, the end of love, Hearing oblivion beyond memory; As one who sits and gazes from above, Over the rivers to the bitter sea. Back to the top XVIAnd yet, because thou overcomest so, Because thou art more noble and like a king, Thou canst prevail against my fears and fling Thy purple round me, till my heart shall grow Too close against thine heart henceforth to know How it shook when alone. Why, conquering May prove as lordly and complete a thing In lifting upward, as in crushing low! And as a vanquished soldier yields his sword To one who lifts him from the bloody earth; Even so, Belovèd, I at last record, Here ends my strife. If thou invite me forth, I rise above abasement at the word. Make thy love larger to enlarge my worth. Back to the top XVIIMy poet, thou canst touch on all the notes God set between His After and Before, And strike up and strike off the general roar Of the rushing worlds a melody that floats In a serene air purely. Antidotes Of medicated music, answering for Mankind's forlornest uses, thou canst pour From thence into their ears. God's will devotes Thine to such ends, and mine to wait on thine. How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use? A hope, to sing by gladly? or a fine Sad memory, with thy songs to interfuse? A shade, in which to sing--of palm or pine? A grave, on which to rest from singing? Choose. Back to the top XVIIII never gave a lock of hair away To a man, dearest, except this to thee, Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully, I ring out to the full brown length and say Take it. My day of youth went yesterday; My hair no longer bounds to my foot's glee, Nor plant I it from rose or myrtle-tree, As girls do, any more: it only may Now shade on two pale cheeks the mark of tears, Taught drooping from the head that hangs aside Through sorrow's trick. I thought the funeral-shears Would take this first, but Love is justified,-- Take it thou,--finding pure, from all those years, The kiss my mother left here when she died. Back to the top XIXThe soul's Rialto hath its merchandise; I barter curl for curl upon that mart, And from my poet's forehead to my heart Receive this lock which outweighs argosies,-- As purply black, as erst to Pindar's eyes The dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwart The nine white Muse-brows. For this counterpart,... The bay-crown's shade, Belovèd, I surmise, Still lingers on thy curl, it so black! Thus, with a fillet of smooth-kissing breath, I tie the shadows safe from gliding back, And lay the gift where nothing hindereth; Here on my heart, as on thy brow, to lack No natural heat till mine grows cold in death. Back to the top XXBelovegrave;d, my Belovèd, when I think That thou wast in the world a year ago, What time I sat 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. Back to the top XXISay over again, and yet once over again, That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated Should seem "a cuckoo-song," as thou dost treat it, Remember, never to the hill or plain, Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strain Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed, Belovèd, I, amid the darkness greeted By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt's pain Cry, Speak once more--thou lovest! Who can fear Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll, Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year? Say thou dost love me, love me, love me--toll The silver iterance!--only minding, Dear, To love me also in silence with thy soul. Back to the top XXIIWhen our two souls stand up erect and strong, Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher, Until the lengthening wings break into fire At either curvèd point,--what bitter wrong Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented? Think. In mounting higher, The angels would press on us and aspire To drop some golden orb of perfect song Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay Rather on earth, Belovèd,--where the unfit Contrarious moods of men recoil away And isolate pure spirits, and permit A place to stand and love in for a day, With darkness and the death-hour rounding it. Back to the top How Do I Love TheeHow 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 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. 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.
Back to the top A Musical InstrumentWhat was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat, And breaking the golden lilies afloat With the dragon-fly on the river. He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, From the deep cool bed of the river: The limpid water turbidly ran, And the broken lilies a-dying lay, And the dragon-fly had fled away, Ere he brought it out of the river. High on the shore sat the great god Pan While turbidly flowed the river; And hacked and hewed as a great god can, With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed, Till there was not a sign of the leaf indeed To prove it fresh from the river. He cut it short, did the great god Pan, (How tall it stood in the river!) Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man, Steadily from the outside ring, And notched the poor dry empty thing In holes, as he sat by the river. "This is the way," laughed the great god Pan (Laughed while he sat by the river), "The only way, since gods began To make sweet music, they could succeed." Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed, He blew in power by the river. Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan! Piercing sweet by the river! Blinding sweet, O great god Pan! The sun on the hill forgot to die, And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly Came back to dream on the river. Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, To laugh as he sits by the river, Making a poet out of a man: The true gods sigh for the cost and pain, -- For the reed which grows nevermore again As a reed with the reeds in the river.
Back to the top Change Upon ChangeFive months ago the stream did flow, The lilies bloomed within the sedge, And we were lingering to and fro, Where none will track thee in this snow, Along the stream, beside the hedge. Ah, Sweet, be free to love and go! For if I do not hear thy foot, The frozen river is as mute, The flowers have dried down to the root: And why, since these be changed since May, Shouldst thou change less than they. And slow, slow as the winter snow The tears have drifted to mine eyes; And my poor cheeks, five months ago Set blushing at thy praises so, Put paleness on for a disguise. Ah, Sweet, be free to praise and go! For if my face is turned too pale, It was thine oath that first did fail, -- It was thy love proved false and frail, -- And why, since these be changed enow, Should I change less than thou. Back to the top GriefI TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God's throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness, In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death-- Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet: If it could weep, it could arise and go. Back to the top Lord Walter's WifeI 'But where do you go?' said the lady, while both sat under the yew, And her eyes were alive in their depth, as the kraken beneath the sea-blue. II 'Because I fear you,' he answered;--'because you are far too fair, And able to strangle my soul in a mesh of your golfd-coloured hair.' III 'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason! Such knots are quickly undone, And too much beauty, I reckon, is nothing but too much sun.' IV 'Yet farewell so,' he answered; --'the sunstroke's fatal at times. I value your husband, Lord Walter, whose gallop rings still from the limes. V 'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason. You smell a rose through a fence: If two should smell it what matter? who grumbles, and where's the pretense? VI 'But I,' he replied, 'have promised another, when love was free, To love her alone, alone, who alone from afar loves me.' VII 'Why, that,' she said, 'is no reason. Love's always free I am told. Will you vow to be safe from the headache on Tuesday, and think it will hold? VIII 'But you,' he replied, 'have a daughter, a young child, who was laid In your lap to be pure; so I leave you: the angels would make me afraid.' IX 'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason. The angels keep out of the way; And Dora, the child, observes nothing, although you should please me and stay.' X At which he rose up in his anger,--'Why now, you no longer are fair! Why, now, you no longer are fatal, but ugly and hateful, I swear.' XI At which she laughed out in her scorn: 'These men! Oh these men overnice, Who are shocked if a colour not virtuous is frankly put on by a vice.' XII Her eyes blazed upon him--'And you! You bring us your vices so near That we smell them! You think in our presence a thought 'twould defame us to hear! XIII 'What reason had you, and what right,--I appel to your soul from my life,-- To find me so fair as a woman? Why, sir, I am pure, and a wife. XIV 'Is the day-star too fair up above you? It burns you not. Dare you imply I brushed you more close than the star does, when Walter had set me as high? XV 'If a man finds a woman too fair, he means simply adapted too much To use unlawful and fatal. The praise! --shall I thank you for such? XVI 'Too fair?--not unless you misuse us! and surely if, once in a while, You attain to it, straightaway you call us no longer too fair, but too vile. XVII 'A moment,--I pray your attention!--I have a poor word in my head I must utter, though womanly custom would set it down better unsaid. XVIII 'You grew, sir, pale to impertinence, once when I showed you a ring. You kissed my fan when I dropped it. No matter! I've broken the thing. XIX 'You did me the honour, perhaps, to be moved at my side now and then In the senses--a vice, I have heard, which is common to beasts and some men. XX 'Love's a virtue for heroes!--as white as the snow on high hills, And immortal as every great soul is that struggles, endures, and fulfils. XXI 'I love my Walter profoundly,--you, Maude, though you faltered a week, For the sake of . . . what is it--an eyebrow? or, less still, a mole on the cheek? XXII 'And since, when all's said, you're too noble to stoop to the frivolous cant About crimes irresistable, virtues that swindle, betray and supplant. XXIII 'I determined to prove to yourself that, whate'er you might dream or avow By illusion, you wanted precisely no more of me than you have now. XXIV 'There! Look me full in the face!--in the face. Understand, if you can, That the eyes of such women as I am are clean as the palm of a man. XXV 'Drop his hand, you insult him. Avoid us for fear we should cost you a scar-- You take us for harlots, I tell you, and not for the women we are. XXVI 'You wronged me: but then I considered . . . there's Walter! And so at the end I vowed that he should not be mulcted, by me, in the hand of a friend. XXVII 'Have I hurt you indeed? We are quits then. Nay, friend of my Walter, be mine! Come, Dora, my darling, my angel, and help me to ask him to dine.'
Back to the top The Best Thing in the WorldWhat's the best thing in the world? June-rose, by May-dew impearled; Sweet south-wind, that means no rain; Truth, not cruel to a friend; Pleasure, not in haste to end; Beauty, not self-decked and curled Till its pride is over-plain; Love, when, so, you're loved again. What's the best thing in the world? --Something out of it, I think.
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