If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say "I love her for her smile ... her look ... her way Of speaking gently, ... for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,-- and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.
Love's Eternity - Five Songs of Elizabeth Barrett Browning for Mezzo (or Contralto) & Piano
Song Cycle by Gary Carpenter
1. Love
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 14, first published 1850
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. Grief
I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God's throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness In souls as countries lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death -- Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet: If it could weep, it could arise and go.
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
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First published in Graham's Magazine, 1842, rev. 1844Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Death
Fast this life of mine is dying, Blind already and calm as death, Snowflakes on my bosom lying Scarcely heaving with my breath. Love comes by and having known me In a dream of fabled lands, Gently stoops, and lays upon me Mystic chrism of Holy hands. He draws his smile across my folded Eyelids as the swallow dips; Breathes as finely as the cold does Through the locking of my lips. So when I look upward, being Warmed and breathed on from above, What sight can I have for seeing Evermore but thy love?
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
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Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson4. Transfiguration
Belovèd, thou did'st bring me many flowers Plucked in this garden, all the summer through And winter, and it seemed as if they grew In my close room, nor missed the sun and showers. So, in the like name of that love of ours, Take back these thoughts which here unfolded too, And which on warm and cold days I withdrew From my heart's ground. Indeed, these beds and bowers Be overgrown with bitter weeds and rue, And wait thy weeding; yet here's eglantine, Here's ivy! -- take them, as I used to do Thy flowers, and keep them where they shall not pine. Instruct thine eyes to keep their colours true, And tell thy soul, their roots are left in mine.
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 44, first published 1850
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]5. Reunion
My own sweet Love, if thou in the grave, The darksome grave, wilt be, Then will I go down by thy side, and crave Love-room for thee and me. I kiss and caress and press thee wild, Thou still, thou cold, thou white ! I wail, I tremble, and weeping mild, Turn to a corpse at the sight. The Dead stand up, the midnight calls, They dance in airy swarms -- We two keep still where the grave-shade falls, And I lie on in thine arms. The Dead stand up, the Judgment-day Bids such to weal and woe -- But nought shall trouble us where we stay Embraced and embracing below.
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Last Poems, in Paraphrases on Heine, no. 5
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Lyrisches Intermezzo, no. 32
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]