Explore "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes / God set between His After and Before, / And strike up and strike off the general roar / Of the rushing worlds a melody that floats / In a serene air purely. Antidotes / Of medicated music, answering for / Mankind's forlornest uses, thou canst pour / From thence into their ears. God's will devotes / Thine to such ends, and mine to wait on thine.
How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use? / A hope, to sing by gladly? or a fine / Sad memory, with thy songs to interfuse? / A shade, in which to sing-of palm or pine? / A grave, on which to rest from singing? Choose.