Hopeless Grief

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

I TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless,—

That only men incredulous of despair,

Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air

Beat upwards to God’s throne in loud access

Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness,

In souls as countries lieth silent-bare

Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare

Of the absolute heavens. Deep-hearted man, express

Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death;

Most like a monumental statue set

In everlasting watch and moveless woe,

Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.

Touch it: the marble eyelids are not wet—

If it could weep, it could arise and go.