English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 582. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | V |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| I LIFT my heavy heart up solemnly, | |
| As once Electra her sepulchral urn, | |
| And looking in thine eyes, I overturn | |
| The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see | |
| What a great heap of grief lay hid in me, | 5 |
| And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn | |
| Through the ashen grayness. If thy foot in scorn | |
| Could tread them out to darkness utterly, | |
| It might be well perhaps. But if instead | |
| Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow | 10 |
| The gray dust up, … those laurels on thine head, | |
| O my Belovèd, will not shield thee so, | |
| That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred | |
| The hair beneath. Stand farther off then! go. | |
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