English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald. The Harvard Classics. 190914. |
|
611. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| XXXIV |
| Elizabeth Barrett Browning (18061861) |
|
|
WITH the same heart, I said, Ill answer thee | |
As those, when thou shalt call me by my name | |
Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same, | |
Perplexed and ruffled by lifes strategy? | |
When called before, I told how hastily | 5 |
I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game, | |
To run and answer with the smile that came | |
At play last moment, and went on with me | |
Through my obedience. When I answer now, | |
I drop a grave thought, break from solitude; | 10 |
Yet still my heart goes to theeponder how | |
Not as to a single good, but all my good! | |
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow | |
That no childs foot could run fast as this blood. | |
|
|
|
|