9 Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes on Love

Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes on love

7. 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; Unless you can die when the dream is past - Oh, never call it loving!

9. The cypress stood up like a church That night we felt our love would hold, And saintly moonlight seemed to search And wash the whole world clean as gold; The olives crystallized the vales' Broad slopes until the hills grew strong: The fireflies and the nightingales Throbbed each to either, flame and song. The nightingales, the nightingales.

14. 'Guess now who holds thee?'-'Death,' I said. But there The silver answer rang-'Not Death, but Love.'

18. If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say 'I love her for her smile -her look -her way Of speaking gently,-for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day' - For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,-and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,- A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity'.

19. When our two souls stand up erect and strong, Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher, Until the lengthening wings break into fire At either curved point,--what bitter wrong Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented?

22. Instruct me how to thank thee! Oh, to shoot My soul's full meaning into future years, That they should lend it utterance, and salute Love that endures, from life that disappears!

24. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,-I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

25. Here's ivy! -take them, as I used to do Thy flowers, and keep them where they shall not pine. Instruct thine eyes to keep their colours true, And tell thy soul, their roots are left in mine.

27. Life, struck sharp on death, Makes awful lightning. His last word was, 'Love-' 'Love, my child, love, love!'-(then he had done with grief) 'Love, my child.' Ere I answered he was gone, And none was left to love in all the world.