Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"God, God!     With a childs voice I cry,     Weak, sad, confidingly,     God, God!     Thou knowest, eyelids, raised not always up     Unto"

"With stammering lips and insufficient sound     I strive and struggle to deliver right     That music of my nature, day and night     With drea"

""Theu theu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;"     [Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]     - Medea.     Do ye h"

"Belovd, thou hast brought me many flowers     Plucked in the garden, all the summer through,     And winter, and it seemed as if they grew"

"I think we are too ready with complaint     In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope     Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope     Of yon g"

"Say over again, and yet once over again,     That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated     Should seem a cuckoo-song, as thou dost trea"

"A thought ay like a flower upon mine heart,     And drew around it other thoughts like bees     For multitude and thirst of sweetnesses;     Wh"

"Which is the weakest thing of all     Mine heart can ponder?     The sun, a little cloud can pall     With darkness yonder?     The cloud, a l"

"I     The face, which, duly as the sun,     Rose up for me with life begun,     To mark all bright hours of the day     With hourly love, is dimm"

"Said a people to a poet "Go out from among us straightway!     While we are thinking earthly things, thou singest of divine.     There's a littl"

"We sow the glebe, we reap the corn, We build the house where we may rest, And then, at moments, suddenly, We look up to the great wide sky, Inquiring"

"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 t"

"I. Dead ! One of them shot by the sea in the east, And one of them shot in the west by the sea. Dead ! both my boys ! When you sit at the feast And a"

"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"

"Yet, my pretty sportive friend, Little is't to such an end That I praise thy rareness! Other dogs may be thy peers Haply in these drooping ears, And t"

"But only three in all Gods universe     Have heard this word thou hast said, Himself, beside     Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied"

"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"

"One eve it happened, when I sat alone,     Alone, upon the terrace of my tower,     A book upon my knees to counterfeit     The reading that I"

"Belovd, my Belovd, when I think     That thou wast in the world a year ago,     What time I sat alone here in the snow     And saw no footpri"

"The cypress stood up like a church     That night we felt our love would hold,     And saintly moonlight seemed to search     And wash the whol"

"If all the gentlest-hearted friends I know     Concentred in one heart their gentleness,     That still grew gentler till its pulse was less"

"I.     I stand on the mark beside the shore     Of the first white pilgrim's bended knee,     Where exile turned to ancestor,     And God was than"

""To-day thou girdest up thy loins thyself     And goest where thou wouldest: presently     Others shall gird thee," said the Lord, "to go     W"

"I.     Dead! One of them shot by the sea in the east,     And one of them shot in the west by the sea.     Dead! both my boys! When you sit at the"

"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     T"

"A heavy heart, Belovd, have I borne     From year to year until I saw thy face,     And sorrow after sorrow took the place     Of all those na"

"I.     What was he doing, the great god Pan,     Down in the reeds by the river ?     Spreading ruin and scattering ban,     Splashing and paddlin"

"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,"

"Because thou hast the power and ownst the grace     To look through and behind this mask of me,     (Against which, years have beat thus blanch"

"IX     My lips do need thy breath,     My lips do need thy smile,     And my pallid eyne, that light in thine     Which met the stars erewhile:"

"Of writing many books there is no end;     And I who have written much in prose and verse     For others' uses, will write now for mine,     Wi"

"My own Belovd, who hast lifted me     From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,     And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown     A"

"Go, sit upon the lofty hill,     And turn your eyes around,     Where waving woods and waters wild     Do hymn an autumn sound.     The summer"

"I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;     That only men incredulous of despair,     Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air     B"

"For ever, since my childish looks     Could rest on Nature's pictured books;     For ever, since my childish tongue     Could name the themes o"

"I think of thee! my thoughts do twine and bud     About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,     Put out broad leaves, and soon theres nought to"

"When I attain to utter forth in verse     Some inward thought, my soul throbs audibly     Along my pulses, yearning to be free     And somethin"

"Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed     And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,     Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light     Leaps"

"Let the worlds sharpness like a clasping knife     Shut in upon itself and do no harm     In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,     A"

"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"

"Hearken, oh hearken! let your souls behind you     Turn, gently moved!     Our voices feel along the Dread to find you,     O lost, beloved!"

"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 hi"

"I count the dismal time by months and years     Since last I felt the green sward under foot,     And the great breath of all things summer"

"O Rose! who dares to name thee?     No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet;     But pale, and hard, and dry, as stubble-wheat,     Kept sev"

"'O dreary life,' we cry, 'O dreary life!'     And still the generations of the birds     Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds"

"When some beloved voice that was to you     Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,     And silence, against which you dare not cry,     Ac"

"The 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 s"

"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-wa"

"INSCRIBED TO MY FRIEND E. C.     If God compel thee to this destiny,     To die alone, with none beside thy bed     To ruffle round with sobs"

"Prologue     I heard an angel speak last night,     And he said "Write!     Write a Nation's curse for me,     And send it over the Western S"

"I have been in the meadows all the day     And gathered there the nosegay that you see     Singing within myself as bird or bee     When such d"

"Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!     Unlike our uses and our destinies.     Our ministering two angels look surprise     On one another"

"I see thine image through my tears to-night,     And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How     Refer the cause? Belovd, is it thou     Or I, who"

"Five months ago the stream did flow,     The lilies bloomed within the sedge,     And we were lingering to and fro,     Where none will track t"

"Mine is a wayward lay;     And, if its echoing rhymes I try to string,     Proveth a truant thing,     Whenso some names I love, send it away!"

"With the same heart, I said, Ill answer thee     As those, when thou shalt call me by my name,     Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,"

"What can I give thee back, O liberal     And princely giver, who hast brought the gold     And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold,"

"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 y"

"She has laughed as softly as if she sighed,     She has counted six, and over,     Of a purse well filled, and a heart well tried,     Oh, each"

"And yet, because thou overcomest so,     Because thou art more noble and like a king,     Thou canst prevail against my fears and fling     Thy"