Sonnet 26 - I lived with visions for my company

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



XXVI

I lived with visions for my company
Instead of men and women, years ago,
And found them gentle mates, nor thought to know
A sweeter music than they played to me.
But soon their trailing purple was not free
Of this world's dust, their lutes did silent grow,
And I myself grew faint and blind below
Their vanishing eyes. Then THOU didst come—to be,
Beloved, what they seemed. Their shining fronts,
Their songs, their splendors (better, yet the same,
As river-water hallowed into fonts),
Met in thee, and from out thee overcame
My soul with satisfaction of all wants:
Because God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
98

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDEDED
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 617
Words 111
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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