XXXI
Thou est ! all is said without a word.
I sit beh thy looks, as children do
In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through
Their happy eyelids from an unaverred
Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred
In that last doubt ! a I ot rue
The sin most, but the occasion--that we two
Should for a moment stand unministered
By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,
Thou dovelike help ! and, when my fears would rise,
With thy broad heart serenely interpose:
Brood down with thy divine sufficies
These thoughts which tremble whe of those,
Like callow birds left desert to the skies.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
XXXII
The first time that the sun rose on thih
To love me, I looked forward to the moon
To sla all those bonds which seemed too soon
And quickly tied to make a lasting troth.
Quick-lovis, I thought, may quickly loathe;
And, looking on myself, I seemed not one
For such mans love !--more like an out-of-tune
Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth
To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste,
Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.
I did n myself so, but I placed
A wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float
h master-hands, from instruments defaced,--
And great souls, at oroke, may do and doat.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
XXXIII
Yes, call me by my pet-name ! let me hear
The name I used to run at, when a child,
From i play, and leave the cowslips piled,
To glance up in some face that proved me dear
With the look of its eyes. I miss the clear
Fond voices which, being drawn and reciled
Into the music of Heavens undefiled,
Call me no longer. Silen the bier,
While I call God--call God !--So let thy mouth
Be heir to those who are now exanimate.
Gather the north flowers to plete the south,
And catch the early love up ie.
Yes, call me by that name,--and I, in truth,
With the same heart, will answer and not wait.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
XXXIV
With the same heart, I said, Ill ahee
As those, when thou shalt call me by my name--
Lo, the vain promise ! is the same, the same,
Perplexed and ruffled by lifes strategy ?
When called before, I told how hastily
I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
To run and answer with the smile that came
At play last moment, a on with me
Through my obedience. When I answer now,
I drop a grave thought, break from solitude;
Yet still my heart goes to thee--ponder how--
Not as to a single good, but all my good !
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
That no childs foot could run fast as this blood.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
XXXV
If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exge
And be all to me ? Shall I never miss
Home-talk and blessing and the on kiss
That es to ea turn, nor t it strange,
When I look up, to drop on a new range
Of walls and floors, another home than this ?
Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is
Filled by dead eyes too teo know ge ?
That s hardest. If to quer love, has tried,
To quer grief, tries more, as all things prove;
Frief indeed is love and grief beside.
Alas, I have grieved sol am hard to love.
Yet love me--wilt thou