Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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.

This guelder rose, at far too slight a beck
Of the wind, will toss about her flower-apples.

This guelder rose, at far too slight a beck
Of the wind, will toss about her flower-apples.

Pansies for ladies all--(I wis
That none who wear such brooches miss
A jewel in the mirror).

Pansies for ladies all--(I wis
That none who wear such brooches miss
A jewel in the mirror).

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.

Yet half the beast is the great god Pan,
To laugh, as he sits by the river,
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Yet half the beast is the great god Pan,
To laugh, as he sits by the river,
Making a poet out of a man.
The true gods sigh for the cost and the pain--
For the reed that grows never more again
As a reed with the reeds of the river.