Poetry Corner: Sonnet VI by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from Sonnets from the Portuguese

Sonnet VI by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

Serenely in the sunshine as before,

Without the sense of that which I forbore --

Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land

Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine

With pulses that beat double. What I do

And what I dream include thee, as the wine

Must taste of its own grapes.

And when I sue God for myself,

He hears that name of thine,

And sees within my eyes the tears of two.

I love the way this poem describes the union of two people in love. I love the image of them as inseparable from each other. I don't think this means that they aren't their own people, with their own personalities, but that their interests are forever wrapped up in each other. Their union is so complete that when they pray, even though only one voice is heard, it represents two, and though only one person may be directly helped when the prayer is answered, it benefits both.

I should also mention that while the part I love is those last lines where the poet describes the inseparableness of her lover and herself, the poem is a sad one - she is saying that although he is leaving her, he is eternally a part of her.