How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as [they]1 turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I [seemed]2 to lose With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
The Brownings Go to Italy
Opera by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942)
?. How do I love thee [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 43, first published 1847-50
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) (M.W. Wang) , "我有多麽愛你？", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
See also Karl Shapiro's parody How do I love you?
1 Steele: "men"
2 Steele: "seem"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
?. Such a starved bank of moss [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Such a starved bank of moss Till, that May-morn, Blue ran the flash across: Violets were born! Sky -- what a scowl of cloud Till, near and far, Ray on ray split the shroud: Splendid, a star! World -- how it walled about Life with disgrace, Till God's own smile came out: That was thy face!
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), "Apparitions", appears in The Two Poets of Croisic, Prologue, first published 1878
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]?. I heard last night a little child go singing [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
I heard last night a little child go singing 'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church, O bella libertà, O bella! -- stringing The same words still on notes he went in search So high for, you concluded the upspringing Of such a nimble bird to sky from perch Must leave the whole bush in a tremble green, And that the heart of Italy must beat, While such a voice had leave to rise serene 'Twixt church and palace of a Florence street; A little child, too, who not long had been By mother's finger steadied on his feet, And still O bella libertà he sang.
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), appears in Casa Guidi Windows, first published 1851
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 288