Rosalind's Scroll
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I left thee last, a child at heart, A woman scarce in years: I come to thee, a solemn corpse Which neither feels nor fears. I have no breath to use in sighs; They laid the dead-weights on mine eyes To seal them safe from tears. Look on me with thine own calm look: I meet it calm as thou. No look of thine can change this smile, Or break thy sinful vow: I tell thee that my poor scorn’d heart Is of thine earth—thine earth—a part: It cannot vex thee now. I have pray’d for thee with bursting sob When passion’s course was free; I have pray’d for thee with silent lips In the anguish none could see; They whisper’d oft, ‘She sleepeth soft’— But I only pray’d for thee. Go to! I pray for thee no more: The corpse’s tongue is still; Its folded fingers point to heaven, But point there stiff and chill: No farther wrong, no farther woe Hath licence from the sin below Its tranquil heart to thrill. I charge thee, by the living’s prayer, And the dead’s silentness, To wring from out thy soul a cry Which God shall hear and bless! Lest Heaven’s own palm droop in my hand, And pale among the saints I stand, A saint companionless.
Next 10 Poems
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Runaway Slave At Pilgrim's Point, The
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Seraph And Poet, The
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 01 - I Thought Once How Theocritus Had Sung
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 02 - But Only Three In All God's Universe
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 03 - Unlike Are We, Unlike, O Princely Heart!
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 04 - Thou Hast Thy Calling To Some Palace-floor
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 05 - I Lift My Heavy Heart Up Solemnly
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 06 - Go From Me. Yet I Feel That I Shall Stand
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 07 - The Face Of All The World Is Changed, I Think
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnet 08 - What Can I Give Thee Back, O Liberal
Previous 10 Poems
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Prisoner, The
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Poet And The Bird, The
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Perplexed Music
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Patience Taught By Nature
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Past And Future
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Pain In Pleasure
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Only A Curl
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : On A Portrait Of Wordsworth By B. R. Haydon
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : On A Portrait Of Wordsworth
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning : My Heart And I