by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
My future will not copy fair my past
Language: English
My future will not copy fair my past -- I wrote that once; and thinking at my side My ministering life-angel justified The word by his appealing look upcast To the white throne of God, I turned at last, And there, instead, saw thee, not unallied To angels in thy soul! Then I, long tried By natural ills, received the comfort fast, While budding, at thy sight, my pilgrim's staff Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled. I seek no copy now of life's first half: Leave here the pages with long musing curled, And write me new my future's epigraph, New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 42, 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 Lois Butler (b. 1912), "Sonnet XLII" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "My future will not copy fair my past", published 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 42 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , no title, appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 42, first published 1908
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 109