English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 602. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | XXV |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| A HEAVY heart, Belovèd, have I borne | |
| From year to year until I saw thy face, | |
| And sorrow after sorrow took the place | |
| Of all those natural joys as lightly worn | |
| As the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turn | 5 |
| By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace | |
| Were changed to long despairs, till God’s own grace | |
| Could scarcely lift above the world forlorn | |
| My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring | |
| And let it drop adown thy calmly great | 10 |
| Deep being! Fast it sinketh, as a thing | |
| Which its own nature doth precipitate, | |
| While thine doth close above it, mediating | |
| Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate. | |
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