English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 592. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | XV |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| ACCUSE me not, beseech thee, that I wear | |
| Too calm and sad a face in front of thine; | |
| For we two look two ways, and cannot shine | |
| With the same sunlight on our brow and hair. | |
| On me thou lookest with no doubting care, | 5 |
| As on a bee shut in a crystalline; | |
| Since sorrow hath shut me safe in love’s divine, | |
| And to spread wing and fly in the outer air | |
| Were most impossible failure, if I strove | |
| To fail so. But I look on thee—on thee— | 10 |
| Beholding, besides love, the end of love, | |
| Hearing oblivion beyond memory; | |
| As one who sits and gazes from above, | |
| Over the rivers to the bitter sea. | |
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