So 11 - And therefore if to love be desert
XI
And therefore if to love be desert,
I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale
As these you see, and trembling khat fail
To bear the burden of a heavy heart,—
This weary minstrel-life that once was girt
To climb Aornus, and scarce avail
To pipe now gainst the valley nightingale
A melanusic,—why advert
To these things? O Beloved, it is plain
I am not of thy worth nor for thy place!
A, because I love thee, I obtain
From that same love this vindig grace,
To live on still in love, a in vain,—
To bless thee, yet renouhee to thy face.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So 12 - Ihis very love which is my boast
XII
Ihis very love which is my boast,
And which, when rising up from breast to brow,
Doth e with a ruby large enow
To draw mens eyes and prove the inner cost,—
This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,
I should not love withal, uhat thou
Hadst set me an example, shown me how,
When first thine ear eyes with mine were crossed,
And love called love. And thus, I ot 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.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So 13 - And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
XIII
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light on each?—
I drop it at thy feet. I ot teach
My hand to hold my spirit so far off
From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof
In words, of love hid i of reach.
Nay, let the sileny womanhood
end my woman-love to thy belief,—
Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,
Ahe garment of my life, in brief,
By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,
Lest oouch of this heart vey its grief
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So 14 - If thou must love me, let it be for nought
XIV
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for loves sake only. Do not say
I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speakily,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, aes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day—
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be ged, or ge for thee,—and love, sht,
May be unwrought so. her love me for
Thine own dear pitys wiping my cheeks dry,—
A creature might fet to weep, who bore
Thy fort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for loves sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through loves eternity.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So 15 - Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
XV
Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
Too calm and sad a fa front of thine;
For we two look two ways, and ot shine
With the same sunlight on our brow and hair.
Ohou lookest with no doubting care,
As on a bee shut in a crystalline;
Since sorrow hath shut me safe in loves divine,
And to spread wing and fly ier air
Were most impos