The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume IV Part 3

In this last jeopardy Can I approach thee, I, who cannot move?

How shall I answer thy request for love?

Look in my face and see.

II.

I love thee not, I dare not love thee! go In silence; drop my hand.

If thou seek roses, seek them where they blow In garden-alleys, not in desert-sand.

Can life and death agree, That thou shouldst stoop thy song to my complaint?

I cannot love thee. If the word is faint, Look in my face and see.

III.

I might have loved thee in some former days.

Oh, then, my spirits had leapt As now they sink, at hearing thy love-praise!

Before these faded cheeks were overwept, Had this been asked of me, To love thee with my whole strong heart and head,-- I should have said still ... yes, but _smiled_ and said, "Look in my face and see!"

IV.

But now ... G.o.d sees me, G.o.d, who took my heart And drowned it in life's surge.

In all your wide warm earth I have no part-- A light song overcomes me like a dirge.

Could Love's great harmony The saints keep step to when their bonds are loose, Not weigh me down? am _I_ a wife to choose?

Look in my face and see--

V.

While I behold, as plain as one who dreams, Some woman of full worth, Whose voice, as cadenced as a silver stream's, Shall prove the fountain-soul which sends it forth; One younger, more thought-free And fair and gay, than I, thou must forget, With brighter eyes than these ... which are not wet ...

Look in my face and see!

VI.

So farewell thou, whom I have known too late To let thee come so near.

Be counted happy while men call thee great, And one beloved woman feels thee dear!-- Not I!--that cannot be.

I am lost, I am changed,--I must go farther, where The change shall take me worse, and no one dare Look in my face and see.

VII.

Meantime I bless thee. By these thoughts of mine I bless thee from all such!

I bless thy lamp to oil, thy cup to wine, Thy hearth to joy, thy hand to an equal touch Of loyal troth. For me, I love thee not, I love thee not!--away!

Here's no more courage in my soul to say "Look in my face and see."

PROOF AND DISPROOF.

I.

Dost thou love me, my Beloved?

Who shall answer yes or no?

What is proved or disproved When my soul inquireth so, Dost thou love me, my Beloved?

II.

I have seen thy heart to-day, Never open to the crowd, While to love me aye and aye Was the vow as it was vowed By thine eyes of steadfast grey.

III.

Now I sit alone, alone-- And the hot tears break and burn, Now, Beloved, thou art gone, Doubt and terror have their turn.

_Is_ it love that I have known?

IV.

I have known some bitter things,-- Anguish, anger, solitude.

Year by year an evil brings, Year by year denies a good; March winds violate my springs.

V.

I have known how sickness bends, I have known how sorrow breaks,-- How quick hopes have sudden ends, How the heart thinks till it aches Of the smile of buried friends.

VI.

Last, I have known _thee_, my brave n.o.ble thinker, lover, doer!

The best knowledge last I have.

But thou comest as the thrower Of fresh flowers upon a grave.

VII.

Count what feelings used to move me!

Can this love a.s.sort with those?

Thou, who art so far above me, Wilt thou stoop so, for repose?

Is it true that thou canst love me?

VIII.

Do not blame me if I doubt thee.

I can call love by its name When thine arm is wrapt about me; But even love seems not the same, When I sit alone, without thee.

IX.

In thy clear eyes I descried Many a proof of love, to-day; But to-night, those unbelied Speechful eyes being gone away, There's the proof to seek, beside.

X.

Dost thou love me, my Beloved?

Only _thou_ canst answer yes!

And, thou gone, the proof's disproved, And the cry rings answerless-- Dost thou love me, my Beloved?