Poem by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

Sonnets from the Portuguese. 26. I lived with visions for my company

I lived with visions for my company
Instead of men and women, years ago,
And found them gentle mates, nor thought to know
A sweeter music than they played to me.
But soon their trailing purple was not free
Of this world's dust, their lutes did silent grow,
And I myself grew faint and blind below
Their vanishing eyes. Then THOU didst come—to be,
Beloved, what they seemed. Their shining fronts,
Their songs, their splendors (better, yet the same,
As river-water hallowed into fonts),
Met in thee, and from out thee overcame
My soul with satisfaction of all wants:
Because God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame. 

1. Bianca among the Nightingales
2. Substitution
3. Lord Walter's Wife
4. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 16. And yet, because thou overcomest so
5. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 35. If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

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