We cannot live, except thus mutually
We alternate, aware or unaware,
The reflex act of life: and when we bear
Our virtue onward most impulsively,
Most full of invocation, and to be
Most instantly compellant, certes, there
We live most life, whoever breathes most air
And counts his dying years by sun and sea.
But when a soul, by choice and conscience, doth
Throw out her full force on another soul,
The conscience and the concentration both make
mere life, Love. For Life in perfect whole
And aim consummated, is Love in sooth,
As nature’s magnet-heat rounds pole with pole.
Listen to this poem |
Read by Richard Auty · Source: Librivox.org |
About the poet |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
By the same poet |
Sonnet 43 |
Rosalind's Scroll |
The Deserted Garden |
Consolation |
Sonnets from the Portuguese (i) |
Sonnets from the Portuguese (ii) |
Sonnets from the Portuguese (iii) |
Sonnets from the Portuguese (iv) |
Sonnets from the Portuguese (v) |
A Musical Instrument |
Related books |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning at amazon.co.uk |