English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 605. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | XXVIII |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| MY letters! all dead paper, mute and white! | |
| And yet they seem alive and quivering | |
| Against my tremulous hands which lose the string | |
| And let them drop down on my knee to-night. | |
| This said,—he wished to have me in his sight | 5 |
| Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring | |
| To come and touch my hand … a simple thing, | |
| Yet I wept for it!—this, … the paper’s light … | |
| Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed | |
| As if God’s future thundered on my past. | 10 |
| This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled | |
| With lying at my heart that beat too fast. | |
| And this … O Love, thy words have ill availed | |
| If, what this said, I dared repeat at last! | |
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