Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Sonnets from the Portuguese: III. ‘Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand’

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

GO from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand

Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore

Alone upon the threshold of my door

Of individual life I shall command

The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand

Serenely in the sunshine as before,

Without the sense of that which I forbore—

Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land

Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine

With pulses that beat double. What I do

And what I dream include thee, as the wine

Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue

God for myself, He hears that name of thine,

And sees within my eyes the tears of two.