Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Never the Time and the Place
1Never the time and the place
2 And the loved one all together!
3This path--how soft to pace!
4 This May--what magic weather!
5Where is the loved one's face?
6In a dream that loved one's face meets mine,
7 But the house is narrow, the place is bleak
8Where, outside, rain and wind combine
9 With a furtive ear, if I strive to speak,
10 With a hostile eye at my flushing cheek,
11With a malice that marks each word, each sign!
12O enemy sly and serpentine,
13Uncoil thee from the waking man!
14 Do I hold the Past
15 Thus firm and fast
16Yet doubt if the Future hold I can?
17This path so soft to pace shall lead
18Thro' the magic of May to herself indeed!
19Or narrow if needs the house must be,
20Outside are the storms and strangers: we
21Oh, close, safe, warm sleep I and she,--
22I and she!
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Robert Browning, Jocoseria (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1883). PR 4211 A1 ROBA.
First publication date:
1883
RPO poem editor: F. E. L. Priestley
RP edition: 3RP 3.193.
Recent editing: 2:2001/12/17
Rhyme: irregularly rhyming
Other poems by Robert Browning
