| Poems by Women |
Grief
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 1806-1861
I TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through
the midnight air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking
and reproach. Full desertness
In souls as countries lieth
silent-bare
Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute
Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express
Grief for thy Dead in silence like to
death--
Most like a monumental statue set
In everlasting watch and
moveless woe
Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.
Touch it; the
marble eyelids are not wet:
If it could weep, it could arise and go.
From: Quiller-Couch, Arthur.
The Oxford Book of Verse. (1900)
This poet:
[Author index]
This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.
Citing poems from these pages:
| Author. "Poem Title." Women's History: Poems by Women. Jone Johnson Lewis, editor. URL: (date of logon) |
