Poetry Day - Henceforward in thy shadow
How to chose a poem each week is the question. Today I thought I would post a good old-fashioned love sonnet, one of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning's most beautiful Sonnets from the Portuguese, which I was reminded of by none other than George Eliot. This one is so lovely, and rhymes so effortlessly you hardly notice.

VI
Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore
Alone upon the threshold of my door
Of individual life, I shall command
The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand
Serenely in the sunshine as before,
Without the sense of that which I forbore -
Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double. What I do
And what I dream include thee, as the wine
Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue*
God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
And sees within my eyes the tears of two.
* Note: she is using "sue" in the obsolete meaning of "To make a petition to; appeal to; beseech".
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Picture from marjolabiche's photostream.