Sonnet XV. Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wearToo calm and sad a face in front of thine;For we two look two ways, and cannot shineWith the same sunlight on our brow and hair.On me thou lookest with no doubting care,As on a bee shut in a crystalline;Since sorrow hath shut me safe in […]

Sonnet XIV. If thou must love me, let it be for noughtExcept for love’s sake only. Do not say“I love her for her smile–her look–her wayOf speaking gently,–for a trick of thoughtThat falls in well with mine, and certes broughtA sense of pleasant ease on such a day”–For these things in themselves, Beloved, mayBe changed, […]

Sonnet XIII. And wilt thou have me fashion into speechThe 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 drop it at thy feet. I cannot teachMy hand to hold my spirit so far offFrom myself–me–that I should bring thee proofIn […]

Sonnet XII. Indeed this very love which is my boast,And which, when rising up from breast to brow,Doth crown me with a ruby large enowTo draw men’s eyes and prove the inner cost,–This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,I should not love withal, unless that thouHadst set me an example, shown me how,When […]

Sonnet XXIII. Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?And would the sun for thee more coldly shineBecause of grave-damps falling round my head?I marvelled, my Beloved, when I readThy thought so in the letter. I am thine–But … so much to thee? Can I pour thy […]

Sonnet XXII. When our two souls stand up erect and strong,Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,Until the lengthening wings break into fireAt either curved point,–what bitter wrongCan the earth do to us, that we should not longBe here contented? Think. In mounting higher,The angels would press on us and aspireTo drop some golden […]

Sonnet XXI. Say over again, and yet once over again,That thou dost love me. Though the word repeatedShould seem “a cuckoo-song,” as thou dost treat it.Remember, never to the hill or plain,Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strainComes the fresh Spring in all her green completed.Beloved, I, amid the darkness greetedBy a doubtful spirit-voice, in that […]

Sonnet XX. Beloved, my Beloved, when I thinkThat thou wast in the world a year ago,What time I sat alone here in the snowAnd saw no footprint, heard the silence sinkNo moment at thy voice, but, link by link,Went counting all my chains as if that soThey never could fall off at any blowStruck by […]

Sonnet XIX. The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise;I barter curl for curl upon that mart,And from my poet’s forehead to my heartReceive this lock which outweighs argosies,–As purply black, as erst to Pindar’s eyesThe dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwartThe nine white Muse-brows. For this counterpart, …The bay-crown’s shade, Beloved, I surmise,Still lingers on thy curl, […]

Sonnet XVIII. I never gave a lock of hair awayTo a man, Dearest, except this to thee,Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully,I ring out to the full brown length and say“Take it.” My day of youth went yesterday;My hair no longer bounds to my foot’s glee,Nor plant I it from rose or myrtle-tree,As girls do, […]

Sonnet XVII. My poet, thou canst touch on all the notesGod set between His After and Before,And strike up and strike off the general roarOf the rushing worlds a melody that floatsIn a serene air purely. AntidotesOf medicated music, answering forMankind’s forlornest uses, thou canst pourFrom thence into their ears. God’s will devotesThine to such […]

Sonnet XVI. And yet, because thou overcomest so,Because thou art more noble and like a king,Thou canst prevail against my fears and flingThy purple round me, till my heart shall growToo close against thine heart henceforth to knowHow it shook when alone. Why, conqueringMay prove as lordly and complete a thingIn lifting upward, as in […]

Sonnet XXXI. Thou comest! all is said without a word.I sit beneath thy looks, as children doIn the noon-sun, with souls that tremble throughTheir happy eyelids from an unaverredYet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erredIn that last doubt! and yet I cannot rueThe sin most, but the occasion–that we twoShould for a moment stand unministeredBy […]

Sonnet XXX. I see thine image through my tears to-night,And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. HowRefer the cause?–Beloved, is it thouOr I, who makes me sad? The acolyteAmid the chanted joy and thankful riteMay so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out […]

Sonnet XXIX. I think of thee!–my thoughts do twine and budAbout thee, as wild vines, about a tree,Put out broad leaves, and soon there’s nought to seeExcept the straggling green which hides the wood.Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understoodI will not have my thoughts instead of theeWho art dearer, better! Rather, instantlyRenew thy presence; […]

Sonnet XXVIII. My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!And yet they seem alive and quiveringAgainst my tremulous hands which loose the stringAnd let them drop down on my knee to-night.This said,–he wished to have me in his sightOnce, as a friend: this fixed a day in springTo come and touch my hand … a […]

Sonnet XXVII. My own Beloved, who hast lifted meFrom this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blownA life-breath, till the forehead hopefullyShines out again, as all the angels see,Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own,Who camest to me when the world was gone,And I who looked for […]

Sonnet XXVI. I lived with visions for my companyInstead of men and women, years ago,And found them gentle mates, nor thought to knowA sweeter music than they played to me.But soon their trailing purple was not freeOf this world’s dust, their lutes did silent grow,And I myself grew faint and blind belowTheir vanishing eyes. Then […]

Sonnet XXV. A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borneFrom year to year until I saw thy face,And sorrow after sorrow took the placeOf all those natural joys as lightly wornAs the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turnBy a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apaceWere changed to long despairs, till God’s own graceCould scarcely lift […]

Sonnet XXIV. Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife,Shut in upon itself and do no harmIn this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,And let us hear no sound of human strifeAfter the click of the shutting. Life to life–I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm,And feel as safe as guarded by a […]