Sonnets from the Portuguese: XXIII

Sonnets from the Portuguese: XXIII

Original Text
A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. First Series. New Edition. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1886. 1: 181-202.
1Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
2Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
3And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
4Because of grave-damps falling round my head?
5I marvelled, my Belovèd, when I read
6Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—
7But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
8While my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead
9Of dreams of death, resumes life’s lower range.
10Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!
11As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
13I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
14My near sweet view of heaven, for earth with thee!

Notes

12] to give up acres and degree: If a woman in the mid-nineteenth century married a man below her in social status, she might have to give up her own social status and any lands and money associated with it. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1850
RPO poem Editors
Marc R. Plamondon
RPO Edition
2007
Form