English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 613. Sonnets from the Portuguese |
| | | XXXVI |
| | | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| WHEN we met first and loved, I did not build | |
| Upon the event with marble. Could it mean | |
| To last, a love set pendulous between | |
| Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled, | |
| Distrusting every light that seemed to gild | 5 |
| The onward path, and feared to overlean | |
| A finger even. And, though I have grown serene | |
| And strong since then, I think that God has willed | |
| A still renewable fear … O love, O troth … | |
| Lest these enclaspèd hands should never hold, | 10 |
| This mutual kiss drop down between us both | |
| As an unowned thing, once the lips being cold. | |
| And Love, be false! if he, to keep one oath, | |
| Must lose one joy, by his life’s star foretold. | |
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