Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Celebrating Valentine’s Day with Elizabeth Barrett Browning
What we call Life is a condition of the soul. And the soul must improve in happiness and wisdom, except by its own fault. These tears in our eyes, these faintings of the flesh, will not hinder such improvement.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) 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 every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. 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.
On The Road Book Club 
YES, I did enjoy them. Thank you for sharing!
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Your could not have chosen a poem more fitting for Valentine’s Day than this one, so beautiful with words of love! It is a beautiful love story between the poet and her husband, made more intense because of her father’s disapproval and her loss of inheritance. Thank you for including her lovely picture and the happy wishes for her birthday. Very well done!
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I have just downloaded EBB’s poetry via Kindle. Here is the beginning of the poem I read today! I know you will enjoy these words.
“O dreary life,” we cry, “O dreary Life!”
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the
Flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
with Heaven’s true purpose in us,….”
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So heartening to be reminded of love stories, whether past or present. And, as always, a beautiful poetry recitation by you, Rebecca.
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I just downloaded a book of poetry by EBB. I am enjoying the introduction because it adds so much to my understanding of her poetry. I only know EBB through a small selection of poems, but she is so much more – complex and challenging. One poem a day is like an apple a day – promoting good health.
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She and Robert had such a literary love story!
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Life is the very very best when shared with a kindred spirit. Hugs!
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Lovely sentiments in a week where Hate is trying to get the upper hand. And whatever the fate of the military manoeuvres, Love seems to be winning.
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How very well said, Margaret. In the end, all that we will remember is the love that we have received and given in turn. Hugs!
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And hugs in return! (Virtual, obviously, we’ve currently got Covid. But don’t feel sorry for us, we’re not particularly ill)
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On no!! Please take care of yourselves. I am so glad to hear you are not particularly ill. That is a very good sign that you are on the mend.
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Omicron seems a good choice, I think. Almost everyone I know who’s had it hasn’t ben particularly ill.
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Goodness, it’s amazing how often we are on the same wavelength! (Or perhaps not surprising at all…. 💕) Only yesterday, I thought, out of nowhere really, I must read more of EBB’s poetry and so I put a volume of complete works in my Amazon basket! And here is your post today, with another beautiful reading. Thank you! xxx
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And yet again, serendipity steps in, Liz. It is like you are in the next room. I was reading an article about EBB and there was a link to “The Collected Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning” the Wordsworth Poetry Library. I have not a shred of resistance! It is so easy to push the click button to download a book. And what a marvelous book it is! “A thought lay like a flower upon mine heart, And drew around it other thoughts like bees for multitude and thirst of sweetnesses…..” EBB Pain in Pleasure.
Sending hugs!!!
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I’m glad it’s not just me who can’t resist these bookish delights! That quote is so beautiful, thank you xxx
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Such a lovely passage. Thanks for sharing it, Rebecca. Toasting you with my second cup of coffee.
I hoped to get the trash taken out before these gale force (dry) winds kicked up, but it sounds like I missed the window for that. Might as well finish that coffee. Hugs on the wing!
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I am having my second cup of coffee with you as I write these words. I am delighted that you enjoyed this passage, Teagan. I have just downloaded a book EBB’s poetry. I now realize how prolific she was. Most of us know the poems that we read in school, but there is so much more to explore. I continue to learn. I hope you are battening down the hatches. Keep safe – sending sunshine your way.
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LOL, the sunshine arrived. Snow melted by lunchtime. For the first time in my life, I love wintertime. 😀
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