English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 609. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | XXXII |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| THE FIRST time that the sun rose on thine oath | |
| To love me, I looked forward to the moon | |
| To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon | |
| And quickly tied to make a lasting troth. | |
| Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe; | 5 |
| And, looking on myself, I seemed not one | |
| For such man’s love;—more like an out-of-tune | |
| Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth | |
| To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste, | |
| Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note. | 10 |
| I did not wrong myself so, but I placed | |
| A wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float | |
| ’Neath master-hands, from instruments defaced,— | |
| And great souls, at one stroke, may do and doat. | |
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