I Thought Once How Theocritus Had Sung

________________________________________________
Title:     I Thought Once How Theocritus Had Sung
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning [More Titles by Browning]

Sonnet I.

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,--
"Guess now who holds thee?"--"Death," I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang,--"Not Death, but Love."

-THE END-
Elizabeth Browning's Poem: Sonnet 1

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN