Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“ Ail beauties, whether in nature or art, whether in physics or morals, whether in composition or abstract reasoning, are multiplied reflections, visible in different distances and under different positions, of one archetypal beauty. If we owe gratitude to Him, who created and unveiled its form, should we refuse to gaze upon those reflections? Because they rest even upon heathen scrolls, should we turn away from those scrolls? Because thorns and briers are the product of the earth, should we avert our eyes from that earth? The mind of man and the earth of man are cursed alike. ”

“ The heav'n-born spirit to the earth-born flesh.
Tame lions will scent blood, and appetite
Carnivorous glare from out their restless eyes.
Passions, emotions, sudden changes, throw
Our nature back upon us, till we burn.
What warm'd Cyrene's fount? As poets sing,
The change from light to dark, from dark to light.
All that doth force this nature back on us,
All that doth force the mind to view the mind,
Engend'reth what is named by men, sublime. ”

“ My trusting heart is weariest!
I would—I would, I were at rest!
For me, can earth refuse to fade?
For me, can words be faithful made?
Will my embitter'd hope be sweet?
My pulse forego the human beat? ”

“ As those who love may part.
And now a change hath come to us,
A sea doth rush between!
I do not know if we can be
Again as we have been.
I sit down in mine English land,
Mine English hearth beside;
And thou, to one I never knew,
Art plighted for a bride. ”

“ Whose course in heat, and light, and life is run?
Eagles may view thy face—clouds can assuage
Thy fiery wrath—the sage
Can mete thy stature—thou shalt fade with age.
Thou art not like to God.
Thou! art thou like to God? ”

“ The sweetest song that minstrels sing,
Will charm not Joy to tarrying;
The greenest bay that earth can grow,
Will shelter not in burning woe;
A thousand voices will not cheer,
When one is mute that aye is dear!—
Is there, alas! ”

“ How beautiful is earth! my starry thoughts
Look down on it from their unearthly sphere,
And sing symphonious—Beautiful is earth!
The lights and shadows of her myriad hills;
The branching greenness of her myriad woods ”

“ There is a voice that soundeth stronger—
'My daughter, give thine heart to me.'
Lord! take mine heart! Oh first and fairest,
Whom all creation's ends shall hear;
Who deathless love in death declarest!
None else is beauteous—famous—dear! ”

“ And strange it soundeth as I write it here!
How strange that thou a place of death shouldst fill
Thy brain unlighted, and thine heart grown chill!
And dark the eye, whose plausive glance to draw,
Incited Nature brake her tyrant's law! ”

“ We do not blame Pope and Cowper for not having faithfully represented Homer: we do not blame Pope and Cowper for being Pope and Cowper. It is the nature of the human mind to communicate its own character to whatever substance it conveys, whether it convey metaphysical impressions from itself to another mind, or literary compositions from one to another language. It is therefore desirable that the same composition should be conveyed by different minds, that the character of the medium may not be necessarily associated with the thing conveyed. ”

“ We still may hear the voice of God
⁠In silence of the fields.
Oh! then sleep comes on us like death,
⁠All soundless, deaf and deep:
Lord! teach us so to watch and pray,
⁠That death may come like sleep. ”

“ Perhaps, of all the authors of antiquity, no one stands so forward to support this hypothesis, as Æschylus; and of all the works of Æschylus, no one stands more forward to support it, than his work of the Prometheus Bound. He is a fearless and impetuous, not a cautious and accomplished poet. His excellences could not be acquired by art, nor could his defects exist separately from genius. It would be nearly equally impossible for the mere imitator to compass either; for if we would stand in the mist, we must stand also on the mountain. ”

“ Shall rush among the stars, and swoon to death.
Yea, the shrunk earth, appearing livid pale
Beneath the red-tongued flame, shall shudder by
From out her ancient place, and leave—a void.
Yet haply by that void the saints redeem'd
May sometimes stray; when memory of sin
Ghost-like shall rise upon their holy souls ”

“ Till Nature said, 'Enough.'
⁠Who longest dreams,
Dreams not for ever; seeing day and night
And corporal feebleness divide his dreams,
And, on his elevate creations weigh
With hunger, cold, heat, darkness, weariness:
Else should we be like gods ”

“ Farewell!—a word that human lips bestow
On all that human hearts delight to know:
On summer skies, and scenes that change as fast;
On ocean calms, and faith as fit to last;
On Life, from Love's own arms, that breaks away ”

“ But other things must make us smile,
When Sorrow bids us weep!
The dearest hands that clasp our hands,—
Their pressure may be o'er:
The dearest voice that meets our ear,
That tone may come no more!
Youth fades ”

“ But the Satan of Milton and the Prometheus of Æschylus stand upon ground as unequal, as do the sublime of sin and the sublime of virtue. Satan suffered from his ambition; Prometheus from his humanity: Satan for himself; Prometheus for mankind: Satan dared perils which he had not weighed; Prometheus devoted himself to sorrows which he had foreknown. "Better to rule in hell," said Satan; "Better to serve this rock," said Prometheus. But in his hell, Satan yearned to associate man ”

“ To walk like sunshine through the orange bowers—
To strike her land's guitar—and often see
In other eyes how lovely hers must be—
Grew she acquaint with anguish? Did she sever
For ever from the one she loved for ever,
To dwell among the strangers? Ay! ”

“ I would not doom thy years
Of golden prime, to only tears.
Fair girl! 'twere better that thine eyes
Should find a joy in summer skies,
As if their sun were on thy fate.
Be happy; strive not to be great ”

“ Which roll'd its thunder round, and purged
The air the nations breathed.
'She said, that tongue, all eloquent,
With silent dust did mate;
Whereon false friends betray'd long faith,
And foes outspat their hate. ”

“ Boyd, who, in addition to many valuable and well-known translations, [1] has furnished the public with an able version of that obscure tragedy, considers the scene in question to be "unapproached and unapproachable by any rival." But I would rest the claims of the Prometheus upon one fulcrum, the conception of character. It is not in the usual manner of Æschylus to produce upon his canvass any very prominent figure, to which every other is made subordinate, and to which the interest of the spectator is very strongly and almost exclusively attached. ”

“ We do not turn from green hills and waving forests, because we build and inhabit palaces; nor do we turn towards them, that we may model them in painted wax. We make them subjects of contemplation, in order to abstract from them those ideas of beauty, afterwards embodied in our own productions ”

“ His excellences consist chiefly in a vehement imaginativeness, a strong but repressed sensibility, a high tone of morality, a fervency of devotion, and a rolling energetic diction: and as sometimes his fancy rushes in, where his judgment fears to tread, and language, even the most copious and powerful of languages, writhes beneath its impetuosity ”

“ All men, since Æsop's time and before it, have worn various-coloured spectacles. They cannot part with their colour, which is their individuality; but they may correct the effects of that individuality by itself. If Potter show us Æschylus through green spectacles, and another translator, though in a very inferior manner, show us Æschylus through yellow ones, it will become clear to the English reader, that green and yellow are not inherent properties of the Greek poet: and in this respect, both the English reader and the Greek poet are benefited. ”

“ A SEA-SIDE MEDITATION.
"Ut per aquas quæ nunc rerum simulacra videmus."
Lucretius, lib . i.
Go, travel 'mid the hills! The summer's hand
Hath shaken pleasant freshness o'er them all.
Go, travel 'mid the hills! There, tuneful streams
Are touching myriad stops, invisible ”