RPO -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnets from the Portuguese: XIII

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Sonnets from the Portuguese: XIII

1And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

2The love I bear thee, finding words enough,

3And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,

4Between our faces, to cast light on each?—

5I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach

6My hand to hold my spirits so far off

7From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof

8In words, of love hid in me out of reach.

9Nay, let the silence of my womanhood

10Commend my woman-love to thy belief,—

11Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,

12And rend the garment of my life, in brief,

13By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,

14Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.

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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: A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. First Series. New Edition. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1886. 1: 181-202.
First publication date: 1850
RPO poem editor: Marc R. Plamondon
RP edition: 2007
Recent editing: 2:2007/11/24

Composition date: 1846
Form: sonnet

Other poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning