De Profundis

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I

    The face, which, duly as the sun,
    Rose up for me with life begun,
    To mark all bright hours of the day
    With hourly love, is dimmed away
    And yet my days go on, go on.

II

    The tongue which, like a stream, could run
    Smooth music from the roughest stone,
    And every morning with 'Good day'
    Make each day good, is hushed away,
    And yet my days go on, go on.

III

    The heart which, like a staff, was one
    For mine to lean and rest upon,
    The strongest on the longest day
    With steadfast love, is caught away,
    And yet my days go on, go on.

IV

    And cold before my summer's done,
    And deaf in Nature's general tune,
    And fallen too low for special fear,
    And here, with hope no longer here,
    While the tears drop, my days go on.

V

    The world goes whispering to its own,
    ‘This anguish pierces to the bone;’
    And tender friends go sighing round,
    ‘What love can ever cure this wound?'
    My days go on, my days go on.

VI

    The past rolls forward on the sun
    And makes all night. O dreams begun,
    Not to be ended! Ended bliss,
    And life that will not end in this!
    My days go on, my days go on.

VII

    Breath freezes on my lips to moan:
    As one alone, once not alone,
    I sit and knock at Nature's door,
    Heart-bare, heart-hungry, very poor,
    Whose desolated days go on.

VIII

    I knock and cry, Undone, undone!
    Is there no help, no comfort,    none?
    No gleaning in the wide wheat plains
    Where others drive their loaded wains?
    My vacant days go on, go on.

IX

    This Nature, though the snows be down,
    Thinks kindly of the bird of June:
    The little red hip on the tree
    Is ripe for such. What is for me,
    Whose days so winterly go on?

X

    No bird am I, to sing in June,
    And dare not ask an equal boon.
    Good nests and berries red are Nature's
    To give away to better creatures,
    And yet my days go on, go on.

XI

    I ask less kindness to be done,
    Only to loose these pilgrim shoon,
    (Too early worn and grimed) with sweet
    Cool deadly touch to these tired feet.
    Till days go out which now go on.

XII

    Only to lift the turf unmown
    From off the earth where it has grown,
    Some cubit-space, and say ‘Behold,
    Creep in, poor Heart, beneath that fold,
    Forgetting how the days go on.’


XIII

    What harm would that do? Green anon
    The sward would quicken, overshone
    By skies as blue; and crickets might
    Have leave to chirp there day and night
    While my new rest went on, went on.

XIV

    From gracious Nature have I won
    Such liberal bounty? may I run
    So, lizard-like, within her side,
    And there be safe, who now am tried
    By days that painfully go on?

XV

    A Voice reproves me thereupon,
    More sweet than Nature's when the drone
    Of bees is sweetest, and more deep
    Than when the rivers overleap
    The shuddering pines, and thunder on.

XVI

    God's Voice, not Nature's! Night and noon
    He sits upon the great white throne
    And listens for the creatures' praise.
    What babble we of days and days?
    The Day-spring He, whose days go on.

XVII

    He reigns above, He reigns alone;
    Systems burn out and have his throne;
    Fair mists of seraphs melt and fall
    Around Him, changeless amid all,
    Ancient of Days, whose days go on.

XVIII

    He reigns below, He reigns alone,
    And, having life in love forgone
    Beneath the crown of sovran thorns,
    He reigns the Jealous God. Who mourns
    Or rules with Him, while days go on?

XIX

    By anguish which made pale the sun,
    I hear Him charge his saints that none
    Among his creatures anywhere
    Blaspheme against Him with despair,
    However darkly days go on.

XX

    Take from my head the thorn-wreath brown!
    No mortal grief deserves that crown.
    O supreme Love, chief misery,
    The sharp regalia are for Thee
    Whose days eternally go on!

XXI

    For us, whatever's undergone,
    Thou knowest, willest what is done,
    Grief may be joy misunderstood;
    Only the Good discerns the good.
    I trust Thee while my days go on.

XXII

    Whatever's lost, it first was won;
    We will not struggle nor impugn.
    Perhaps the cup was broken here,
    That Heaven's new wine might show more clear.
    I praise Thee while my days go on.

XXIII

    I praise Thee while my days go on;
    I love Thee while my days go on:
    Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost,
    With emptied arms and treasure lost,
    I thank Thee while my days go on.

XXIV

    And having in thy life-depth thrown
    Being and suffering (which are one),
    As a child drops his pebble small
    Down some deep well, and hears it fall
    Smiling so I. Thy days go on.