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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

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Famous Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

“Unless you can muse in a crowd all day On the absent face that fixed you; Unless you can love, as the angels may, With the breadth of heaven betwixt you; Unless you can dream that his faith is fast, Through behoving and unbehoving; Unless you can die when the dream is past — Oh, never call it loving!”

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Book:Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems
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“And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The love I bear thee, finding words enough, And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough, Between our faces, to cast light on each? - I dropt it at thy feet. I cannot teach My hand to hold my spirits so far off From myself--me--that I should bring thee proof In words, of love hid in me out of reach. Nay, let the silence of my womanhood Commend my woman-love to thy belief, - Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, And rend the garment of my life, in brief, By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.”

ShouldHeartEnoughHandsLightFacesSpiritBeliefGriefSilenceTeachSeeingFeetFashionWindBearsSpeechFindingsCastsProofTheeRoughWomanhoodFortitudeGarmentsTorchesVoicelessDauntless
Book:Sonnets from the Portuguese
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“They say that God lives very high! But if you look above the pines You cannot see our God. And why? And if you dig down in the mines You never see Him in the gold, Though from Him all that's glory shines. God is so good, He wears a fold Of heaven and earth across His face - Like secrets kept, for love, untold. But still I feel that His embrace Slides down by thrills, through all things made, Through sight and sound of every place: As if my tender brother laid On my shut lids, her kisses' pressure, Half waking me at night; and said, "Who kissed through the dark, dear guesser?"”

IfsLifeFeelsLooksMadeSaidStillsEarthFacesNightHeavenSoundDarkSecretHalfMinesBrotherKissingGloryAll ThingsGoldSightPressureEmbraceShiningDearWakingFoldsSlidesHeaven And EarthGod LifeSight And Sound
Book:Poems of the Intellect and the Affections
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“The growing drama has outgrown such toys Of simulated stature, face, and speech: It also peradventure may outgrow The simulation of the painted scene, Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume, And take for a worthier stage the soul itself, Its shifting fancies and celestial lights, With all its grand orchestral silences To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds.”

MaySoulLightFacesActorsSoundSilenceGrowingStageDramaSceneSpeechBoardsFancyToysPausesCostumesShiftingCelestialStatureSimulation
Book:Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barret Browning
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“The Holy Night We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem; The dumb kine from their fodder turning them, Softened their horned faces To almost human gazes Toward the newly Born: The simple shepherds from the star-lit brooks Brought visionary looks, As yet in their astonied hearing rung The strange sweet angel-tongue: The magi of the East, in sandals worn, Knelt reverent, sweeping round, With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground, The incense, myrrh, and gold These baby hands were impotent to hold: So let all earthlies and celestials wait Upon thy royal state. Sleep, sleep, my kingly One!”

HumansLooksLongStatesHandsFacesNightStarsWaitingBornSleepSimpleStrangeSweetBabyHolyAngelGoldRoundsHearingTongueEastDumbPaleWornRoyalLitBeardVisionariesBrooksShepherdsSweepingIncenseBethlehemSandalsFodderHoly Night
Author:Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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