| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | X. “What can I give thee back” | | By Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | (From Sonnets from the Portuguese)
WHAT can I give thee back, O liberal | |
| And princely giver, who hast brought the gold | |
| And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold, | |
| And laid them on the outside of the wall, | |
| For such as I to take, or leave withal, | 5 |
| In unexpected largesse? Am I cold, | |
| Ungrateful, that for these most manifold | |
| High gifts, I render nothing back at all? | |
| Not so. Not cold! but very poor instead! | |
| Ask God who knows! for frequent tears have run | 10 |
| The colors from my life, and left so dead | |
| And pale a stuff, it were not fitly done | |
| To give the same as pillow to thy head. | |
| Go farther!—let it serve to trample on. | | | | |
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