If God compel thee to this destiny, To die alone, with none beside thy bed To ruffle round with sobs thy last word said And mark with tears the pulses ebb from thee,...
Aurora Leigh, be humble. Shall I hope To speak my poems in mysterious tune With man and nature? with the lava-lymph That trickles from successive galaxies Still drop by drop adown the finger of God...
They met still sooner. 'Twas a year from thence That Lucy Gresham, the sick sempstress girl, Who sewed by Marian's chair so still and quick, And leant her head upon its back to cough...
God, God! With a child's voice I cry, Weak, sad, confidingly, God, God! Thou knowest, eyelids, raised not always up Unto Thy love (as none of ours are), droop As ours, o'er many a tear!...
And, O beloved voices, upon which Ours passionately call because erelong Ye brake off in the middle of that song We sang together softly, to enrich The poor world with the sense of love, and witch,...
My future will not copy fair my past On any leaf but Heaven's. Be fully done, Supernal Will! I would not fain be one Who, satisfying thirst and breaking fast Upon the fulness of the heart, at last...
I thought once how Theocritus had sung Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, Who each one in a gracious hand appears To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:...
But only three in all God's universe Have heard this word thou hast said, Himself, beside Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied One of us . . . that was God, . . . and laid the curse...
Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart! Unlike our uses and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise On one another, as they strike athwart Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art...
Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor, Most gracious singer of high poems! where The dancers will break footing, from the care Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more....
Can it be right to give what I can give? To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years Re-sighing on my lips renunciative...
I lift my heavy heart up solemnly, As once Electra her sepulchral urn, And, looking in thine eyes, I over-turn The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,...
Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore Alone upon the threshold of my door Of individual life, I shall command The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand...
The face of all the world is changed, I think, Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink...
What can I give thee back, O liberal And princely giver, who hast brought the gold And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold, And laid them on the outside of the wall...
Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright, Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:...
And therefore if to love can be desert, I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale As these you see, and trembling knees that fail To bear the burden of a heavy heart, This weary minstrel-life that once was girt...
Indeed this very love which is my boast, And which, when rising up from breast to brow, Doth crown me with a ruby large enow To draw men's eyes and prove the inner cost,...
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The love I bear thee, finding words enough, And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough, Between our faces, to cast light on each?...