Explore "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I think of thee!-my thoughts do twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree, / Put out broad leaves, and soon there's nought to see / Except the straggling green which hides the wood.
Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood / I will not have my thoughts instead of thee / Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly / Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should, / Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare, / And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee, / Drop heavily down,-burst, shattered everywhere!