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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  683. Sonnets from the Portuguese ii

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 1806–1861

683. Sonnets from the Portuguese ii

UNLIKE are we, unlike, O princely Heart! 
  Unlike our uses and our destinies. 
  Our ministering two angels look surprise 
On one another, as they strike athwart 
Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art         5
  A guest for queens to social pageantries, 
  With gages from a hundred brighter eyes 
Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part 
Of chief musician. What hast thou to do 
  With looking from the lattice-lights at me—  10
A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through 
  The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree? 
The chrism is on thine head—on mine the dew— 
  And Death must dig the level where these agree.