by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
Language: English
Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart! Unlike our uses and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise On one another, as they strike athwart Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art A guest for queens to social pageantries, With gages from a hundred brighter eyes Than tears even can make mine, to ply thy part Of chief musician. What hast thou to do With looking from the lattice-lights at me, A poor, tired, wandering singer, … singing through The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree? The chrism is on thine head, — on mine, the dew, — And Death must dig the level where these agree.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with A Book of Women’s Verse, ed. by J. C. Squire. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921; Bartleby.com, 2011. www.bartleby.com/291/104.html
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 3, first published 1847 [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 Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart", published 1907 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "Unlike", 2015 [ soprano and piano ], from How do I love thee? -- 5 songs for soprano and piano on sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Oskar Morawetz (b. 1917), "Sonnet III: Unlike Are We", 1955 [ high voice and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Hubert du Plessis (b. 1922), "Unlike are we", op. 15 (Three Sonnets from the Portuguese) no. ? (1954), rev. 1973, first performed 1956 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lajos Vass (b. 1927), "Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart", c1966 [ soprano, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 3, first published 1908
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 110