Sonnets from the Portuguese: IX
Sonnets from the Portuguese: IX
Original Text
A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. First Series. New Edition. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1886. 1: 181-202.
1Can it be right to give what I can give?
2To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears
3As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
4Re-sighing on my lips renunciative
5Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live
6For all thy adjurations? O my fears,
7That this can scarce be right! We are not peers
8So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve,
9That givers of such gifts as mine are, must
10Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas!
11I will not soil thy purple with my dust,
13Nor give thee any love—which were unjust.
14Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.
Notes
12] Venice-glass: elaborate and fine drinking glass. Legend has it that if such a glass were touched by poison, the glass would shatter. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1850
RPO poem Editors
Marc R. Plamondon
RPO Edition
2007
Form