| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | XIII. “And therefore, if to love can be desert” | | By Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | (From Sonnets from the Portuguese)
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 | 5 |
| To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail | |
| To pipe now ’gainst the woodland nightingale | |
| A melancholy music?—why advert | |
| To these things? O beloved, it is plain | |
| I am not of thy worth nor for thy place; | 10 |
| And yet because I love thee, I obtain | |
| From that same love this vindicating grace, | |
| To live on still in love and yet in vain; | |
| To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face. | | | | |
|
|
