…from Poem for the Day Two:
Sonnets from the Portuguese (XV)
Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
Too calm and sad a face in front of thine,
For we two look two ways, and cannot shine
With the same sunlight on our brow & hair.
Thou lookest, sweet, on me, without a care
As on a bee shut in a crystalline . .
For sorrow hath shut me safe in love’s divine,
And to spread wing & fly in the outer air
Were most impossible failure, if I strove
To fail so-But I look on thee . . on thee . .
Beholding besides love, the end of love.
Hearing oblivion beyond memory . . .
As one who sits and gazes, from above,
Over the rivers to the bitter sea.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Thank you for reminding me of this.
Beautiful poem by famous poet. Thank you for sharing. Blessings to you, Lilian…
There are so many evocative images in this poem. I have never read it before it. I like the bit about the sunlight and looking two ways, and the bee in crystalline and sitting and gazing from above over the rivers to the bitter sea. Well all of it really