Sonnets from the Portuguese

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By Listen TheBook Posted on May 30, 2023

In Category - Poetry, Sonnets

Authors: Elizabeth Barrett Browning In Year : 1850

Book Language: English

Audiobook: Sonnets from the Portuguese

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
But only three in all God’s universe
Unlike are we, unlike, o princely heart
Thou hast thy calling to some palace floor
I lift my heavy heart up solemnly
Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
The face of all the world is changed, I think
What can I give thee back, O liberal
Can it be right to give what I can give?
Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful enough
And therefore if to love can be desert
Indeed this very love which is my boast
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
And yet, because thou overcomest so
My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes
I never gave a lock of hair away
The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise
Beloved, my beloved, when I think
Say over again, and yet once over again
When our two souls stand up erect and strong
Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead
Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife
A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne
I lived with visions for my company
My own Beloved, who has lifted me
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
I think of thee!–my thoughts do twine and bud
I see thine image through my tears tonight
Thou comest! All is said without a word
The first time that the sun rose on thine oath
Yes, call me by my pet-name! Let me hear
With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee
If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
When we first met and loved, I did not build
Pardon, oh, pardon that my soul should make
First time he kissed me, he but only kissed
Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace
Oh yes! they love all through this world of ours!
I thank all who have loved me in their hearts
My future will not copy fair my past
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers

Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. Elizabeth was initially hesitant to publish the poems, feeling that they were too personal. However, Robert insisted that they were the best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided that she might publish them under a title disguising the poems as translations of foreign sonnets. Therefore, the collection was first to be known as Sonnets from the Bosnian, until Robert suggested that she change their imaginary original language to Portuguese, probably after his nickname for her: "my little Portuguese." (Summary from Wikipedia)