Elizabeth Barrett Browning — A Denial

I. We have met late—it is too late to meet,        &nbspO friend, not more than friend! Death’s forecome shroud is tangled round my feet, And if I step or stir, I touch the end.        &nbspIn this last jeopardy Can I approach thee, I, who cannot move? How shall I answer thy request for love?        &nbspLook in my face and see. II. I love thee not, I dare not love thee! go        &nbspIn silence; drop my hand. If thou seek roses, seek them where they blow In garden-alleys, not in desert-sand.        &nbspCan life and death agree, That thou shouldst stoop thy song to my complaint? I cannot love thee. If the word is faint,        &nbspLook in my face and see. III. I might have loved thee in some former days.        &nbspOh, then, my spirits had leapt As now they sink, at hearing thy love-praise! Before these faded cheeks were overwept,        &nbspHad this been asked of me, To love thee with my whole strong heart and head,— I should have said still ... yes, but smiled and said,        &nbsp“Look in my face and see!” IV. But now ... God sees me, God, who took my heart        &nbspAnd drowned it in life’s surge. In all your wide warm earth I have no part— A light song overcomes me like a dirge.        &nbspCould Love’s great harmony The saints keep step to when their bonds are loose, Not weigh me down? am I a wife to choose?        &nbspLook in my face and see— V. While I behold, as plain as one who dreams,        &nbspSome woman of full worth, Whose voice, as cadenced as a silver stream’s, Shall prove the fountain-soul which sends it forth;        &nbspOne younger, more thought-free And fair and gay, than I, thou must forget, With brighter eyes than these ... which are not wet ...        &nbspLook in my face and see! VI. So farewell thou, whom I have known too late        &nbspTo let thee come so near. Be counted happy while men call thee great, And one belovèd woman feels thee dear!—        &nbspNot I!—that cannot be. I am lost, I am changed,—I must go farther, where The change shall take me worse, and no one dare        &nbspLook in my face and see. VII. Meantime I bless thee. By these thoughts of mine        &nbspI bless thee from all such! I bless thy lamp to oil, thy cup to wine, Thy hearth to joy, thy hand to an equal touch        &nbspOf loyal troth. For me, I love thee not, I love thee not!—away! Here’s no more courage in my soul to say        &nbsp“Look in my face and see.”