| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | XV. “And wilt thou have me fashion into speech” | | By Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | (From Sonnets from the Portuguese)
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 it at thy feet. I cannot teach | 5 |
| My hand to hold thy 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,— | 10 |
| 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. | | | | |
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