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“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach”
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I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach”
―
“You're something between a dream and a miracle.”
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―
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
― Selected Poems
― Selected Poems
“No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.”
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“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.”
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“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
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And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
―
“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.”
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“You were made perfectly to be loved and surely I have loved you in the idea of you my whole life long. ”
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“Love me sweet
With all thou art
Feeling, thinking, seeing;
Love me in the Lightest part,
Love me in full Being.”
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With all thou art
Feeling, thinking, seeing;
Love me in the Lightest part,
Love me in full Being.”
―
“Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father’s name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!”
― Aurora Leigh
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father’s name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!”
― Aurora Leigh
“My sun sets to rise again.”
― Browning: Poems
― Browning: Poems
“Why, what is to live? Not to eat and drink and breathe,—but to feel the life in you down all the fibres of being, passionately and joyfully.”
― The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barret Barrett 1845-1846
― The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barret Barrett 1845-1846
“Who so loves believes the impossible.”
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“Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
“Light tomorrow with today.”
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“If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'—
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
If Thou Must Love Me”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'—
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
If Thou Must Love Me”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
“God's gifts put men's best dreams to shame.”
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“Witch, scholar, poet, dreamer, and the rest...”
― Aurora Leigh
― Aurora Leigh
“With stammering lips and insufficient sound I strive and struggle to deliver right the music of my nature.”
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“All actual heroes are essential men,
And all men possible heroes.”
―
And all men possible heroes.”
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“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.”
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“And yet, because I love thee, I obtain
From that same love this vindicating grace,
To live on still in love, and yet in vain”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
From that same love this vindicating grace,
To live on still in love, and yet in vain”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
“Parting is all we know of heaven
And all we need of hell”
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And all we need of hell”
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“Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all. What then?
Who's sorry for a gnat... or a girl?”
― A Little Book of Love Poems
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all. What then?
Who's sorry for a gnat... or a girl?”
― A Little Book of Love Poems
“What we call Life is a condition of the soul. And the soul must improve in happiness and wisdom, except by its own fault. These tears in our eyes, these faintings of the flesh, will not hinder such improvement.”
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“Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.”
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“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.”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me.”
― Sonnets from the Portuguese
“And if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death.”
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I shall but love thee better after death.”
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