Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I was betrothed that day;
I wore a troth kiss on my lips I could not give away.

I was betrothed that day;
I wore a troth kiss on my lips I could not give away.

You smell a rose through a fence:
If two should smell it, what matter?

You smell a rose through a fence:
If two should smell it, what matter?

Pray, pray, thou who also weepest,--
And the drops will slacken so;
Weep, weep--and the watch thou read more

Pray, pray, thou who also weepest,--
And the drops will slacken so;
Weep, weep--and the watch thou keepest,
With a quicker count will go.
Think,--the shadow on the dial
For the nature most undone,
Marks the passing of the trial,
Proves the presence of the sun.

The beauty seems right
By force of beauty, and the feeble wrong
Because of weakness.

The beauty seems right
By force of beauty, and the feeble wrong
Because of weakness.

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
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God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
A gauntlet with a gift in 't.