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1 Oct: "Sonnets from the Portuguese III"

III. "Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
Unlike our uses and our destinies.
Our ministering two angels look surprise
On one another, as they strike athwart
Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art
A guest for queens to social pageantries,
With gages from a hundred brighter eyes
Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part
Of chief musician. What hast thou to do
With looking from the lattice-lights at me,
A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?
The chrism is on thine head,---on mine, the dew,---
And Death must dig the level where these agree.

5 comments:

  1. Opposites attracting, balancing, yin and yang in love. Love being a balance versus a height reached. "Our ministering two angels look surprise on one another, as they strike athwart their wings in passing." This line really made me smile.

    The middle lines are hazy- like the couple is being judged by their peers for being so opposite, or looked upon by more angels from "a hundred brighter eyes".

    Robert Browning, the chief musician, the poet...the romantic...a Romeo and Juliet type of scene here.

    "Death must dig the level where these agree."- more about balance from the supernatural guardian angels...deciding with their shining eyes, if love shall be possible!

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  2. "Unilike are we"

    She seems surprised that he would love here over all the queens he could get.

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    1. I made a bunch of typos in my comments. *her*

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  3. But she is the older woman ;)...so....lol?

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    1. What did I miss?

      Wisdom and experience make her better???

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