Past and Future

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806–1861 Elizabeth Barrett Browning

MY future will not copy fair my past

On any leaf but Heaven's. Be fully done,

Supernal Will ! I would not fain be one

Who, satisfying thirst and breaking fast

Upon the fulness of the heart, at last

Saith no grace after meat. My wine hath run

Indeed out of my cup, and there is none

To gather up the bread of my repast

Scattered and trampled ! Yet I find some good

In earth's green herbs, and streams that bubble up

Clear from the darkling ground, — content until

I sit with angels before better food.

Dear Christ ! when thy new vintage fills my cup,

This hand shall shake no more, nor that wine spill.

Biography

Among all women poets of the English-speaking world in the nineteenth century, none was held in higher critical esteem or was more admired for the independence and courage of her views than Elizabeth Barrett Browning. During the years of her marriage to Robert Browning, her literary reputation far surpassed that of her poet-husband; when visitors came to their home in Florence, she was invariably the greater attraction. Both in . . .

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