Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (Элизабет Барретт-Браунинг)

Sonnets from the Portuguese. 3. Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!

Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
Unlike our uses and our destinies.
Our ministering two angels look surprise
On one another, as they strike athwart
Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art
A guest for queens to social pageantries,
With gages from a hundred brighter eyes
Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part
Of chief musician. What hast thou to do
With looking from the lattice-lights at me,
A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?
The chrism is on thine head,—on mine, the dew,—
And Death must dig the level where these agree. 

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. 18. I never gave a lock of hair away




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