Sonnets from the Portuguese

Sonnets from the Portuguese

...I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,

The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,

Those of my own life, who by turns had flung

A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,

So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move

Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;

And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,-

"Guess now who holds thee?" - "Death," I said. But, there,

The silver answer rang, - "Not Death, but Love."

 ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning