J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (18061861)Sonnets from the Portuguese. i
I
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was ’ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair,
And a voice said in mastery while I strove,…
‘Guess now who holds thee.’—‘Death,’ I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang,… ‘Not Death, but Love.’