Observations placeholder
Barrett Browning, Elizabeth - A denial
Identifier
004759
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Elizabeth Barrett Browning – from A Denial
We have met late – it is too late to meet
O friend, not more than friend
Death's for-come shroud is tangled round my feet
And if I step or stir, I touch the end.
In this last jeopardy
Can I approach thee, I, who cannot move?
How shall I answer thy request for love?
Look in my face and see.
I love thee not. I dare not love thee, go
In silence, drop my hand.
If thou seek roses, seek them where they blow
In garden alleys, not in desert sand.
Can life and death agree
That thou shouldst stoop thy song to my complaint?
I cannot love thee. If the word is faint
Look in my face and see
I might have loved thee in some former days
Oh then, my spirits had leapt
As now they sink, at hearing thy love praise.
Before these faded cheeks were overwept,
Had this been asked of me
To love thee with my whole strong heart and head
I should have said still – yes, but smiled and said
Look in my face and see