|
|
|
|
| |
SPEAK low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet
From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low
Lest I should fear and fall, and miss Thee so
Who art not missed by any that entreat.
Speak to mo as to Mary at thy feet !
And if no precious gums my hands bestow,
Let my tears drop like amber while I go
In reach of thy divinest voice complete
In humanest affection -- thus, in sooth,
To lose the sense of losing. As a child,
Whose song-bird seeks the wood for evermore
Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth
Till, sinking on her breast, love-reconciled,
He sleeps the faster that he wept before.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Read poems about / on: child, song, mother, fear, lost, children, sleep
|
|
User Rating: |
|
6.8
/10
(16 votes) |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Comments about this poem (Comfort by Elizabeth Barrett Browning) |
more comments >>
|
Click here to write your comments about this poem (Comfort by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Michael Pruchnicki (5/13/2008 11:35:00 AM)
Browning has written an Italian (Petrachan) sonnet which follows the
strict form prescribed. She divides 14 lines into an octave (eight lines)
and a sestet (six lines) , which rhyme ABBA ABBA / CDE CDE. The
octave states the burden of the poem, in this case, a desire for the
soothing voice of Christ to comfort the speaker. The sestet solaces
the speaker's yearning with a solution like that of a mother's love for
her child, which provides comfort to the max.
The apostrophe to Christ in the opening lines seeks mercy and solace like
that which Jesus bestowed on Mary when she wept at the foot of the cross
on Calvary. His words comforted Mary then. The simile 'as a child' likens
the speaker to both a songbird in its nest and an infant at its mother's breast
Quite an accomplished poem written in the strict limitations of an Italian
sonnet. No way does the error in printing make this a bit of a laugh. Learn
to ignore the obvious mistakes made by a careless typesetter, and read
with a mind open to appreciation! . |
Barbara Browning (5/13/2006 7:54:00 PM)
Agree with Connie re the printing errors. Makes the poem a bit of a laugh rather than a serious comment about faith. |
Read all 2 comments >>
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Free
Poetry E-Book:
E-mail this poem to e friend