Sonnets from the Portuguese

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Very short collection of love poems. According to Wikipedia: "Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455395330

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) was an English poet. The daughter of a wealthy family—her father made his fortune as a slave owner in Jamaica, while her mother’s family owned and operated sugar plantations, mills, and ships—Browning eventually became an abolitionist and advocate for child labor laws. Her marriage to the prominent Victorian poet Robert Browning caused the final break between Browning and her family, after which she moved to Italy and lived there with Robert for the rest of her life. She began writing poems at a young age, finding success with the 1844 publication of Poems. Browning went on to be recognized as one of the foremost poets of early Victorian England, influencing such writers as Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is most famous for her Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of 44 love poems published in 1850, and Aurora Leigh, an 1856 epic poem described by leading Victorian critic John Ruskin as the greatest long poem written in the nineteenth century. Browning suffered from numerous illnesses throughout her life, eventually succumbing in Florence at the age of 55.

Book preview

SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

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INDEX OF FIRST LINES

I       I thought once how Theocritus had sung

II      But only three in all God's universe

III     Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!

IV      Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor

V       I lift my heavy heart up solemnly

VI      Go from me.  Yet I feel that I shall stand

VII     The face of all the world is changed, I think

VIII    What can I give thee back, O liberal

IX      Can it be right to give what I can give?

X       Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed

XI      And therefore if to love can be desert

XII     Indeed this very love which is my boast

XIII    And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

XIV     If thou must love me, let it be for nought

XV      Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear

XVI     And yet, because thou overcomest so

XVII    My poet thou canst touch on all the notes

XVIII   I never gave a lock of hair away

XIX     The soul's Rialto hath its merchandize

XX      Beloved, my beloved, when I think

XXI     Say over again, and yet once over again

XXII    When our two souls stand up erect and strong

XXIII   Is it indeed so?  If I lay here dead

XXIV    Let the world's sharpness like a clasping knife

XXV     A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne

XXVI    I lived with visions for my company

XXVII   My