The Earlier Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1826-1833 |
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art thou bard beauty behold breath bright brow clay Condillac dark dead dear death delight in minstrelsy Descartes doth dream dust earth echo Edinburgh Review ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ESSAY ON MIND eternal Ev'n eyes face fair fame farewell feelings flesh forget gaze Genius glorious glory grace grave Greece hand harp hath heav'n Herodotus hills human immortal lift light lips look look'd Lord Lord Bacon LUCRETIUS lustrums lyre Memory midst Mind's minstrel moral Moschus muse mystic nature Nature's neath NOTE o'er Olorus pale past perchance Plato poem Poet's poetic poetry praise pride Procrustian bed Prometheus Bound pulse reason sage Science shade shew shore Shout sigh sight silent sing smile song soul sound speak spirit strings sublime tears tender thee things Thou art thought Thucydides tongue Truth turn unto voice waves weep wild wind wings words
Popular passages
Page 97 - I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Page viii - In my mind the highest of all poetry is ethical poetry, as the highest of all earthly objects must be moral truth. Religion does not make a part of my subject ; it is something beyond human powers, and has failed in all human hands except Milton's and Dante's, and even Dante's powers are involved in his delineation of human passions, though in supernatural circumstances. What made Socrates the greatest of men?
Page 104 - And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind ; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind unto the nature of things.
Page 103 - Pure as the expanse of heaven I thither went With unexperienced thought and laid me down On the green bank to look into the clear Smooth lake that to me seemed another sky. As I bent down to look just opposite A shape within the watery gleam appeared Bending to look on me. I started back It started back but pleased I soon returned Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks Of sympathy and love.
Page 89 - I have done something : but the wit and genius of the old authors beguiled me, and as I despaired of raising myself up to their standard upon fair ground, I thought the only chance I had of looking over their heads was to get upon their shoulders.
Page 96 - Bacon, in a well-known and often-quoted passage, has remarked, that " a little philosophy inclineth men's minds to Atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion...
Page 94 - Must I plunge into metaphysics? Alas, I cannot see in the dark; nature has not furnished me with the optics of a cat. Must I pore upon mathematics? Alas, I cannot see in too much light; I am no eagle.
Page 111 - neath thy gentleness of praise, " My Father ! rose my early lays ! And when the lyre was scarce awake, I lov'd its strings for thy lov'd sake ; Woo'd the kind Muses — but the while Thought only how to win thy smile...
Page 186 - ... that sit beneath In hiding-places from the rain and snow, To loosen the hard soil, and leave their cold Sad idlesse, and betake them up to him. They straightway hear his voice — A thought did come, And press from out my soul the heathen dream. Mine eyes were purged. Straightway did I bind Hound me the garment of my strength, and heard Nature's death-shrieking — the hereafter cry, When he o...
Page xi - I wish that the sublime circuit of intellect, embraced by the plan of my poem, had fallen to the lot of a spirit more powerful than mine. I wish it had fallen to the lot of one familiar with the dwelling-place of Mind, who could search her secret chambers, and call forth those that sleep; or of one who could enter into her temples, and cast out the iniquitous who buy and sell, profaning the sanctuary of God ; or of one who could try the golden links of that chain which hangs from Heaven to earth,...