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by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

If I leave all for thee
 (Sung text for setting by L. Larsen)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
And be all to me? Shall I never miss
Home-talk and blessing and the common kiss
That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange,
When I look up, to drop on a new range
Of walls and floors, another home than this?
Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is
Filled by dead eyes too tender to know change
That's hardest. If to conquer love, has tried,
To conquer grief, tries more, as all things prove,
For grief indeed is love and grief beside.
Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love.
Yet love me--wilt thou? Open thy heart wide,
And fold within, the wet wings of thy dove.

Composition:

    Set to music by Libby Larsen (b. 1950), "If I leave all for thee", 1991 [ soprano and chamber orchestra or piano ], from Sonnets From the Portuguese , no. 4

Text Authorship:

  • by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 35, first published 1850

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , no title, appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 35, first published 1908


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-12-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 124

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