|
|
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Contents:
Show Summary
Hide Summary
Biographical SummaryElizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806–June 29, 1861), English poet, was, in her day, one of the most popular poets in England and the United States. Though her poet-husband, Robert Browning, has since been recognized by critics as the greater talent of the two, she was a prolific writer who rivaled Tennyson and Wordsworth in influence during her lifetime. She is best remembered today for her relationship with Robert Browning through her Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), which recounts the tale of their romance.
II thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,—
“Guess now who holds thee!”—“Death,” I said, But, there,
The silver answer rang, “Not Death, but Love.”
Contents:
Chicago: "I," Sonnets from the Portuguese Original Sources, accessed April 26, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XG333WYCVUL6VKA.
MLA: "I." Sonnets from the Portuguese, Original Sources. 26 Apr. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XG333WYCVUL6VKA.
Harvard: 1850, 'I' in Sonnets from the Portuguese. Original Sources, retrieved 26 April 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XG333WYCVUL6VKA.
|