Sonnets from the Portuguese 35: If I Leave all for thee
Sonnets from the Portuguese 35: If I Leave all for thee
Original Text
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Poems. 4th edn. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1856. PR 4180 E44a ROBA
1If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
2And be all to me? Shall I never miss
3Home-talk and blessing and the common kiss
4That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange,
5When I look up, to drop on a new range
6Of walls and floors ... another home than this?
7Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is
8Filled by dead eyes too tender to know change?
9That's hardest. If to conquer love, has tried,
10To conquer grief, tries more ... as all things prove;
11For grief indeed is love and grief beside.
12Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love.
13Yet love me--wilt thou? Open thine heart wide,
14And fold within, the wet wings of thy dove.
Publication Start Year
1850
RPO poem Editors
J. D. Robins
RPO Edition
2RP.II.344.
Form