Explore "Eyes, Calm Beside Thee (Lady, Couldst Thou Know! )" by Robert Browning on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Eyes, calm beside thee (Lady, couldst thou know! ) / May turn away thick with fast gathering tears: / I glance not where all gaze: thrilling and low / Their passionate praises reach thee -- my cheek wears / Alone no wonder when thou passest by; / Thy tremulous lids, bent and suffused, reply / To the irrepressible homage which doth glow / On every lip but mine: if in thine ears / Their accents linger -- and thou dost recall / Me as I stood, still, guarded, very pale, / Beside each votarist whose lighted brow / Wore worship like an aureole, "O'er them all / My beauty," thou wilt murmur, "did prevail / Save that one only: " -- Lady, couldst thou know!
_August_ 17, 1834.