English poem
Sonnet 09 - Can it be right to give what I can give?
Can it be right to give what I can give? To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years Re-sighing on my lips renunciative Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live For all thy adjurations? O my fears, That this can scarce be right! We are not peers, So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve, That givers of such gifts as mine are, must Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas! I will not soil thy purple with my dust, Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass, Nor give thee any love—which were unjust. Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.
More by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Sienna
- Sixth Book
- SONG OF THE MORNING STAR TO LUCIFER.
- Sonnet 07 - The face of all the world is changed, I think
- Sonnet 12 - Indeed this very love which is my boast
- Sonnet 16 - And yet, because thou overcomest so
- Sonnet 19 - The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise
- Sonnet 21 - Say over again, and yet once over again