by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
I lift my heavy heart up solemnly
Language: English
I lift my heavy heart up solemnly, As once Electra her sepulchral urn, And, looking in thine eyes, I over-turn The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see What a great heap of grief lay hid in me, And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn Through the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scorn Could tread them out to darkness utterly, It might be well perhaps. But if instead Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow The grey dust up,... those laurels on thine head, O my Beloved, will not shield thee so, That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred The hair beneath. Stand further off then! go!
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 5, first published 1850 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by William Henry Bell (1873 - 1946), "I lift my heavy heart" [voice and piano], from Three songs: words from "Sonnets from the Portuguese" [text not verified]
- by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "I lift my heavy heart up solemnly", published 1907 [mezzo-soprano and piano], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 5. [text not verified]
- by (Charles) Alfred de Kaiser (1872 - 1917), "Ashes", published 1912 [soprano and piano], from Seven Sonnets from the Portuguese [text not verified]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , no title, from Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 5, published 1908
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-12-14
Line count: 14
Word count: 114