Explore "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Let the world's sharpness like a clasping knife / Shut in upon itself and do no harm / In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm, / And let us hear no sound of human strife / After the click of the shutting.
Life to life - / I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm, / And feel as safe as guarded by a charm / Against the stab of worldlings, who if rife / Are weak to injure. Very whitely still / The lilies of our lives may reassure / Their blossoms from their roots, accessible / Alone to heavenly dews that drop not fewer; / Growing straight, out of man's reach, on the hill.