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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Sonnets from the Portuguese: XXVII


              1My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me
              2From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
              3And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown
              4A life-breath, till the forehead hopefully
              5Shines out again, as all the angels see,
              6Before thy saving kiss!  My own, my own,
              7Who camest to me when the world was gone,
              8And I who looked for only God, found thee!
              9I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.
            10As one who stands in dewless asphodel,
            11Looks backward on the tedious time he had
            12In the upper life,—so I, with bosom-swell,
            13Make witness, here, between the good and bad,
            14That Love, as strong as Death, retrieves as well.

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Sonnets from the Portuguese: XXVIII

Notes

10] asphodel: an immortal flower that covers the Elysian fields, that section of the ancient Greek underworld where the souls of the heroic and virtuous reside

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

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