dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

XIV. “Indeed this very love which is my boast”

Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

(From Sonnets from the Portuguese)

INDEED this very love which is my boast,

And which, when rising up from breast to brow,

Doth crown me with a ruby large enow

To draw men’s eyes, and prove the inner cost,—

This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,

I should not love withal, unless that thou

Hadst set me an example, shown me how,

When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,

And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak

Of love even, as a good thing of my own.

Thy soul hath snatched up mine, all faint and weak,

And placed it by thee on a golden throne;

And that I love (O soul, I must be meek!),

Is by thee only, whom I love alone.