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.

Poetry Corner: The LOOOOOVE Edition

Happy Valentines Day, blogosphere! I hope it's treating you well. I don't actually get to see The Husband hardly at all today - last day working an evening shift at the old stressful job. However, I thought I'd leave you all with some love poetry, whether or not you have someone special with you today.

I've been reading Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. My Kindle edition of it is absolutely appalling - no line breaks whatsoever. But I'm a cheapskate. And the words are stunning. So first, a love poem for someone who is in love...


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, --
This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,
I should not love withal, unless that thou
Hadst set me an example, shown me how,
When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,
And love called love.
And thus, I cannot speak
Of love even, as a good thing of my own:
Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,
And placed it by thee on a golden throne, --
And that I love (O soul, we must be meek!)
Is by thee only, whom I love alone.

Oh, I love this. I love that image of her love snatching up her faint, weakened soul and placing it beside him on a golden throne because so often I feel like that is what my love did with me. I had gone through so many bad relationships, while my good friend let me cry on his shoulder, and then when I was ready showed me what love really was.

Ok, ok, the gagfest is over. I have one more sonnet I love for those not in love who do not want to be, whether because their hearts are already broken ore because they are just not interested. This is my favorite poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Photo credit

What can I give thee back, O liberal
And princely giver, who has brought the gold
And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold,
And laid them on the outside of the wall
For such as I to take or leave withal,
In unexpected largesse? am I cold,
Ungrateful, that for these most manifold High gifts,
I render nothing back at all?
Not so; not cold, -- but very poor instead.
Ask God who knows. For frequent tears have run
The colours from my life, and left so dead
And pale a stuff, it were not fitly done
To give the same as pillow to they head.
Go farther, let it serve to trample on.

This poem is so heartbreaking to me, both on behalf of the narrator and the rejected lover. He wants to offer her the world, "the gold and purple of [his] heart," and it is left in the cold. She sees how wonderful his offer is, but is so jaded and scarred that she won't accept it. It's poignancy makes it romantic even though the actual romance is being rejected.

That's all for today! Happy love day. :)