Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861 John Bartlett


1
There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o’ the world; oh, eyes sublime With tears and laughter for all time!
A Vision of Poets.
2
And Chaucer, with his infantine Familiar clasp of things divine.
A Vision of Poets.
3
And Marlowe, Webster, Fletcher, Ben, Whose fire-hearts sowed our furrows when The world was worthy of such men.
A Vision of Poets.
4
Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death.
A Vision of Poets. Conclusion.
5
Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.
Toll slowly.
6
And I smiled to think God’s greatness flowed around our incompleteness, Round our restlessness His rest.
Rhyme of the Duchess.
7
Or from Browning some “Pomegranate,” which if cut deep down the middle Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity.
Lady Geraldine’s Courtship. xli.
8
But since he had The genuis to be loved, why let him have The justice to be honoured in his grave.
Crowned and buried. xxvii.
9
Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.
To George Sand. A Desire.
10
By thunders of white silence.
Hiram Powers’s Greek Slave.



11
And that dismal cry rose slowly And sank slowly through the air, Full of spirit’s melancholy And eternity’s despair; And they heard the words it said,— “Pan is dead! great Pan is dead! Pan, Pan is dead!” 1
The dead Pan.
12
She has seen the mystery hid Under Egypt’s pyramid: By those eyelids pale and close Now she knows what Rhamses knows.
Little Mattie. Stanza ii.
13
But so fair, She takes the breath of men away Who gaze upon her unaware.
Bianca among the Nightingales. xii.
14
“Yes,” I answered you last night; “No,” this morning, sir, I say: Colors seen by candle-light Will not look the same by day.
The Lady’s Yes.
15
Dreams of doing good For good-for-nothing people.
Aurora Leigh. Book ii.
16
God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in it.
Aurora Leigh. Book ii.
17
The beautiful seems right By force of Beauty, and the feeble wrong Because of weakness.
Aurora Leigh. Book ii.
18
Every wish Is like a prayer—with God. 2
Aurora Leigh. Book ii.
19
Good critics, who have stamped out poets’ hope, Good statesmen, who pulled ruin on the state, Good patriots, who for a theory risked a cause.
Aurora Leigh. Book iv.
20
Whoso loves Believes the impossible.
Aurora Leigh. Book v.
21
The growing drama has outgrown such toys Of simulated stature, face, and speech: It also peradventure may outgrow The simulation of the painted scene, Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume, And take for a worthier stage the soul itself, Its shifting fancies and celestial lights, With all its grand orchestral silences To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds.
Aurora Leigh. Book v.
22
Since when was genius found respectable?
Aurora Leigh. Book vi.
23
Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; 3 And only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Aurora Leigh. Book vii.

Note 1.
Thamus … uttered with a loud voice his message, “The great Pan is dead.”—Plutarch: Why the Oracles cease to give Answers. [back]

Note 2.
See Montgomery, page 497. Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire. [back]

Note 3.
Whittier: Chapel of the Hermits. [back]

Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -CONCORDANCE INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD