Quote#Death
Straightway I was ’ware
Quote byElizabeth Barrett Browning · 1806–1861
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), No. I.
English (original)
Straightway I was ’ware, So weeping, how a mystic shape did move Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair And a voice said in mastery while I strove... "Guess now who holds thee?"—"Death", I said. But, there, The silver answer rang... "Not Death, but Love."
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning
More from Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low, Lest I should fear and fall, and miss thee so Who art not missed by any that entreat.
By thunders of white silence.
I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless.
Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy dead in silence like to death; Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe, Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it: the marble eyelids are not wet—
Unless you can muse in a crowd all day On the absent face that fixed you; Unless you can love, as the angels may, With the breadth of heaven betwixt you; Unless you can dream that his faith is fast, Through behoving and unbehoving;
Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.