by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
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.
Composition:
- Set to music 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
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 3, first published 1847
See other settings of this text.
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