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"What is genius—but the power of expressing a new individuality?"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford (1954).
letter, Jan. 14, 1843, to author Mary Russell Mitford. |
"It is not at all monstrous in me to say ... that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest artist's work ever produced."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. letter, Dec. 7, 1843, to author Mary Russell Mitford. Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford (1954).
"It is not merely the likeness which is precious," Barrett wrote, "... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing ... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits." |
"It is not merely the likeness which is precious ... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing ... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say ... that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist's work ever produced."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. Letter, December 7, 1843, to Mary Russell Mitford. Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford (1954). |
"First time he kissed me, he but only kiss'd
The fingers of this hand wherewith I write;"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. First time he kissed me (l. 1-2). . .
From SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE Family Book of Best Loved Poems, The. David L. George, ed. (1952) Doubleday & Company. |
"I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness,
In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare
Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute Heavens."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. Grief (l. 1-8). . .
Oxford Book of English Verse, The, 1250-1918. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. (New ed., rev. and enl., 1939) Oxford University Press. |
"I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. How do I love thee? (L. 5-10). . .
From SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. How do I love thee? (L. 11-14). . .
From SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, . . ."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. I thought once how Theocritus had sung (l. 6-7). . .
From SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"'Guess now who holds thee?'—'Death,' I said. But,
there,
The silver answer rang, . . . 'Not Death, but Love.'"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet. I thought once how Theocritus had sung (l. 13-14). . .
From SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"The foolish fears of what might happen.
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay,
Among the husking of the corn,
Where drowsy poppies nod
Where ill thoughts die and good are born—
Out in the fields with God."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), British poet, and Louise Imogen Guiney, British poet. Out in the Fields with God (attributed to Browning and to Guiney). . .
World's Great Religious Poetry, The. Caroline Miles Hill, ed. (1954) The Macmillan Company. |
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