| J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921. | | | | Sonnets from the Portuguese. xxviii | | By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | | MY letters! all dead paper,… mute and white!— | |
| And yet they seem alive and quivering | |
| Against my tremulous hands which loose the string | |
| And let them drop down on my knee to-night. | |
| This said,… he wished to have me in his sight | 5 |
| Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring | |
| To come and touch my hand … a simple thing, | |
| Yet I wept for it!—this,… the paper’s light … | |
| Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed | |
| As if God’s future thundered on my past. | 10 |
| This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled | |
| With lying at my heart that beat too fast. | |
| And this … O Love, thy words have ill availed, | |
| If, what this said, I dared repeat at last! | | | | |
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