Sonnets from the Portuguese
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Biographical SummaryElizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806–June 29, 1861), English poet, was, in her day, one of the most popular poets in England and the United States. Though her poet-husband, Robert Browning, has since been recognized by critics as the greater talent of the two, she was a prolific writer who rivaled Tennyson and Wordsworth in influence during her lifetime. She is best remembered today for her relationship with Robert Browning through her Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), which recounts the tale of their romance.
XXVIIIMy letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said,—he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand . . . a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it!—this, . . . the paper’s light . . .
Said, Dear I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God’s future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this . . . O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!
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Chicago: "XXVIII," Sonnets from the Portuguese Original Sources, accessed July 26, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=85JC5YJ465FEREN.
MLA: "XXVIII." Sonnets from the Portuguese, Original Sources. 26 Jul. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=85JC5YJ465FEREN.
Harvard: 1850, 'XXVIII' in Sonnets from the Portuguese. Original Sources, retrieved 26 July 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=85JC5YJ465FEREN.
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