Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Poets and Years
- List of Poets and Volumes
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Suggested Further Reading
- Changing Times
- Textual Notes 1836–1850
- 1836
- 1837
- 1838
- 1839
- 1840
- 1841
- 1842
- 1843
- 1844
- 1845
- 1846
- 1847
- 1848
- 1849
- 1850
- Sources – Volume I
- Index of Poets and Sonnet Titles – Volume I
- Index of Poets and Sonnet First Lines – Volume I
- Index of Sonnet Titles – Volume I
- Index of Sonnet First Lines – Volume I
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Poets and Years
- List of Poets and Volumes
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Suggested Further Reading
- Changing Times
- Textual Notes 1836–1850
- 1836
- 1837
- 1838
- 1839
- 1840
- 1841
- 1842
- 1843
- 1844
- 1845
- 1846
- 1847
- 1848
- 1849
- 1850
- Sources – Volume I
- Index of Poets and Sonnet Titles – Volume I
- Index of Poets and Sonnet First Lines – Volume I
- Index of Sonnet Titles – Volume I
- Index of Sonnet First Lines – Volume I
Summary
Elizabeth Barrett [Browning] (1806–1861)
[See also 1850]
The Soul's Expression
WITH stammering lips and insufficient sound,
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling, interwound;
And inly answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height,
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground!
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air:
But if I did it,—as the thunder-roll
Breaks its own cloud,—my flesh would perish there,
Before that dread apocalypse of soul.
On a Portrait of Wordsworth, by R. B. Haydon
WORDSWORTH upon Helvellyn! Let the cloud
Ebb audibly along the mountain-wind,
Then break against the rock, and show behind
The lowland valleys floating up to crowd
The sense with beauty. He, with forehead
bowed And humble-lidded eyes, as one inclined
Before the sovran thought of his own mind,
And very meek with inspirations proud,—
Takes here his rightful place as poet-priest
By the high altar, singing prayer and prayer
To the higher Heavens! A noble vision free,
Our Haydon's hand hath flung out from the mist!
No portrait this, with Academic air—
This is the poet and his poetry.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Anthem Anthology of Victorian Sonnets , pp. 131 - 152Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011