Sonnets from the Portuguese ii

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



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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 09, 2023

32 sec read
81

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDABCAEFEFEF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 632
Words 108
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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