Poem by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

Irreparableness

I HAVE been in the meadows all the day
And gathered there the nosegay that you see
Singing within myself as bird or bee
When such do field-work on a morn of May.
But, now I look upon my flowers, decay
Has met them in my hands more fatally
Because more warmly clasped,--and sobs are free
To come instead of songs. What do you say,
Sweet counsellors, dear friends ? that I should go
Back straightway to the fields and gather more ?
Another, sooth, may do it, but not I !
My heart is very tired, my strength is low,
My hands are full of blossoms plucked before,
Held dead within them till myself shall die. 

1. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 35. If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
2. Rosalind's Scroll
3. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 16. And yet, because thou overcomest so
4. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 22. When our two souls stand up erect and strong
5. Substitution

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