Poem by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

Sonnets from the Portuguese. 36. When we met first and loved, I did not build

When we met first and loved, I did not build
Upon the event with marble. Could it mean
To last, a love set pendulous between
Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled,
Distrusting every light that seemed to gild
The onward path, and feared to overlean
A finger even. And, though I have grown serene
And strong since then, I think that God has willed
A still renewable fear... O love, O troth...
Lest these enclasped hands should never hold,
This mutual kiss drop down between us both
As an unowned thing, once the lips being cold.
And Love, be false! if he, to keep one oath,
Must lose one joy, by his life's star foretold. 

1. Bianca among the Nightingales
2. Lord Walter's Wife
3. Sonnets from the Portuguese. 16. And yet, because thou overcomest so
4. Substitution
5. The Soul's Expression

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