Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Sonnets from the Portuguese: XLII
1“My future will not copy fair my past”—
2I wrote that once; and thinking at my side
3My ministering life-angel justified
4The word by his appealing look upcast
5To the white throne of God, I turned at last,
6And there, instead, saw thee, not unallied
7To angels in thy soul! Then I, long tried
8By natural ills, received the comfort fast,
9While budding, at thy sight, my pilgrim’s staff
10Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled.
11I seek no copy now of life’s first half:
12Leave here the pages with long musing curled,
13And write me new my future’s epigraph,
14New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!
Notes
1] My future will not copy fair my past: the opening line from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet, “Past and Future” (1844)
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
