English Poetry. Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 18. I never gave a lock of hair away. Элизабет Барретт-Браунинг.

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (Элизабет Барретт-Браунинг)

Sonnets from the Portuguese. 18. I never gave a lock of hair away

I never gave a lock of hair away
To a man, Dearest, except this to thee,
Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully
I ring out to the full brown length and say
“Take it.”  My day of youth went yesterday;
My hair no longer bounds to my foot’s glee,
Nor plant I it from rose- or myrtle-tree,
As girls do, any more: it only may
Now shade on two pale cheeks the mark of tears,
Taught drooping from the head that hangs aside
Through sorrow’s trick.  I thought the funeral-shears
Would take this first, but Love is justified,—
Take it thou,—finding pure, from all those years,
The kiss my mother left here when she died.

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning’s other poems:

1. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 30. I see thine image through my tears to-night
2. Sonnets from the portuguese. 31. Thou comest! all is said without a word
3. The Soul’s Expression
4. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 22. When our two souls stand up erect and strong
5. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 35. If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

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