Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell, By reiteration chiefly.

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell, By reiteration chiefly.

And I must bear
What is ordained with patience, being aware
Necessity doth front the universe
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And I must bear
What is ordained with patience, being aware
Necessity doth front the universe
With an invincible gesture.

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in read more

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father's name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning's dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!
At last, because the time was ripe,
I chanced upon the poets.

Thank God for grace,
Ye who weep only! If, as some have done,
Ye grope tear-blinded in read more

Thank God for grace,
Ye who weep only! If, as some have done,
Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place
And touch but tombs,--look up! Those tears will run
Soon in long rivers down the lifted face,
And leave the vision clear for stars and sun.

A woman's always younger than a man of equal years.

A woman's always younger than a man of equal years.