Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Sonnets from the Portuguese: XXV
1A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne
2From year to year until I saw thy face,
3And sorrow after sorrow took the place
4Of all those natural joys as lightly worn
5As the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turn
6By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace
7Were changed to long despairs, till God’s own grace
8Could scarcely lift above the world forlorn
9My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring
10And let it drop adown thy calmly great
11Deep being! Fast it sinketh, as a thing
12Which its own nature doth precipitate,
13While thine doth close above it, mediating
14Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.
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
