Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"First time he kissed me, he but only kissed     The fingers of this hand wherewith I write;     And ever since, it grew more clean and white."

"When we met first and loved, I did not build     Upon the event with marble. Could it mean     To last, a love set pendulous between     Sorrow"

"My 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 t"

"How he sleepeth! having drunken     Weary childhood's mandragore,     From his pretty eyes have sunken     Pleasures, to make room for more"

"Light human nature is too lightly tost     And ruffled without cause, complaining on     Restless with rest, until, being overthrown,     It l"

"I think that look of Christ might seem to say     'Thou Peter! art thou then a common stone     Which I at last must break my heart upon     Fo"

"And 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 be"

"Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand     Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore     Alone upon the threshold of my door     Of individual l"

"We walked beside the sea,     After a day which perished silently     Of its own glory, like the Princess weird     Who, combating the Genius,"

"My future will not copy fair my past     On any leaf but Heaven's. Be fully done,     Supernal Will! I would not fain be one     Who, satisfyin"

"I.     Friends of faces unknown and a land     Unvisited over the sea,     Who tell me how lonely you stand     With a single gold curl in the han"

"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 w"

""Yes!" I answered you last night;     "No!" this morning, Sir, I say!     Colours, seen by candle-light,     Will not look the same by day."

"The woman singeth at her spinning-wheel     A pleasant chant, ballad or barcarole;     She thinketh of her song, upon the whole,     Far more t"

"I     "Now give us lands where the olives grow,"     Cried the North to the South,     "Where the sun with a golden mouth can blow     Blow bubble"

"The souls Rialto hath its merchandize;     I barter curl for curl upon that mart,     And from my poets forehead to my heart     Receive this"

"Now, by the verdure on thy thousand hills,     Beloved England, doth the earth appear     Quite good enough for men to overbear     The will of"

"When our two souls stand up erect and strong,     Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,     Until the lengthening wings break into fire"

"Can 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"

"I thought once how Theocritus had sung     Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,     Who each one in a gracious hand appears     T"

"They met still sooner. 'Twas a year from thence     That Lucy Gresham, the sick sempstress girl,     Who sewed by Marian's chair so still and qu"

"I lived with visions for my company     Instead of men and women, years ago,     And found them gentle mates, nor thought to know     A sweeter"

"Accuse 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"

"AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO E. J.     Experience, like a pale musician, holds     A dulcimer of patience in his hand,     Whence harmonies, w"

"I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,     As once Electra her sepulchral urn,     And, looking in thine eyes, I over-turn     The ashes at thy fee"

"Aurora Leigh, be humble. Shall I hope     To speak my poems in mysterious tune     With man and nature? with the lava-lymph     That trickles f"

"What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil;     Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines     For all the heat o' the day, till it declines,"

"I would build a cloudy House     For my thoughts to live in;     When for earth too fancy-loose     And too low for Heaven!     Hush! I talk m"

"All are not taken; there are left behind     Living Belovds, tender looks to bring     And make the daylight still a happy thing,     And tend"

"Two savings of the Holy Scriptures beat     Like pulses in the Church's brow and breast;     And by them we find rest in our unrest     And, he"

"My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!     And yet they seem alive and quivering     Against my tremulous hands which loose the string"

"Yes, call me by my pet-name! let me hear     The name I used to run at, when a child,     From innocent play, and leave the cowslips plied,"

"We overstate the ills of life, and take     Imagination (given us to bring down     The choirs of singing angels overshone     By God's clear g"

"I.     Enough! we're tired, my heart and I.     We sit beside the headstone thus,     And wish that name were carved for us.     The moss reprints"

"Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer not     More grief than ye can weep for. That is well     That is light grieving! lighter, none befell"

"True genius, but true woman! dost deny     The woman's nature with a manly scorn     And break away the gauds and armlets worn     By weaker wo"

"What'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 fr"

"If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange     And be all to me? Shall I never miss     Home-talk and blessing and the common kiss     That co"

"Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man,     Self-called George Sand! whose soul, amid the lions     Of thy tumultuous senses, moans defi"

"Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make     Of all that strong divineness which I know     For thine and thee, an image only so     Formed"

"Wordsworth upon Helvellyn! Let the cloud     Ebb audibly along the mountain-wind,     Then break against the rock, and show behind     The lowl"

"And, O beloved voices, upon which     Ours passionately call because erelong     Ye brake off in the middle of that song     We sang together s"

"I     '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"

"I     Love me Sweet, with all thou art,     Feeling, thinking, seeing;     Love me in the lightest part,     Love me in full being. II     Lo"

"The English have a scornful insular way     Of calling the French light. The levity     Is in the judgment only, which yet stands,     For say"

"Loving friend, the gift of one,     Who, her own true faith, hath run,     Through thy lower nature;     Be my benediction said     With my ha"

"Even thus. I pause to write it out at length,     The letter of the Lady Waldemar.     "I prayed your cousin Leigh to take you this:     He s"

"I 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 f"

"Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet     From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low     Lest I should fear and fall, and miss Thee so     Wh"

"Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor,     Most gracious singer of high poems! where     The dancers will break footing, from the care"

"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"

"The Saviour looked on Peter. Ay, no word,     No gesture of reproach; the Heavens serene     Though heavy with armed justice, did not lean"

"Times followed one another. Came a morn     I stood upon the brink of twenty years,     And looked before and after, as I stood     Woman and a"

"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 shine     Becaus"

""The woman's motive? shall we daub ourselves     With finding roots for nettles? 'tis soft clay     And easily explored. She had the means,"

"He 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 b"

"The seraph sings before the manifest     God-One, and in the burning of the Seven,     And with the full life of consummate     Heaving beneath"

"I mind me in the days departed,     How often underneath the sun     With childish bounds I used to run     To a garden long deserted.     Th"

"Indeed this very love which is my boast,     And which, when rising up from breast to brow,     Doth crown me with a ruby large enow     To dra"

"If thou must love me, let it be for nought     Except for loves sake only. Do not say     I love her for her smile, her look, her way     Of"