English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 617. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | XL |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| OH, yes! they love through all this world of ours! | |
| I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth. | |
| I have heard love talked in my early youth, | |
| And since, not so long back but that the flowers | |
| Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours | 5 |
| Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth | |
| For any weeping. Polypheme’s white tooth | |
| Slips on the nut if, after frequent showers, | |
| The shell is over-smooth,—and not so much | |
| Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate, | 10 |
| Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such | |
| A lover, my Belovèd! thou canst wait | |
| Through sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch, | |
| And think it soon when others cry “Too late.” | |
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