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Sonnets from the Portuguese

Gelesen von Kirsten Ferreri

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Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. Elizabeth was initially hesitant to publish the poems, feeling that they were too personal. However, Robert insisted that they were the best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided that she might publish them under a title disguising the poems as translations of foreign sonnets. Therefore, the collection was first to be known as Sonnets from the Bosnian, until Robert suggested that she change their imaginary original language to Portuguese, probably after his nickname for her: "my little Portuguese." (Summary from Wikipedia) (0 hr 47 min)

Chapters

I thought once how Theocritus had sung

1:11

Read by Kirsten Ferreri

But only three in all God’s universe

1:06

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Unlike are we, unlike, o princely heart

1:04

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Thou hast thy calling to some palace floor

1:06

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I lift my heavy heart up solemnly

1:08

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Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand

1:06

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The face of all the world is changed, I think

1:06

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What can I give thee back, O liberal

1:07

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Can it be right to give what I can give?

1:04

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Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful enough

1:12

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And therefore if to love can be desert

1:05

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Indeed this very love which is my boast

1:06

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And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

1:06

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If thou must love me, let it be for nought

1:05

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Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear

1:03

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And yet, because thou overcomest so

1:03

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My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes

1:09

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I never gave a lock of hair away

1:06

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The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise

1:07

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Beloved, my beloved, when I think

1:05

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Say over again, and yet once over again

1:10

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When our two souls stand up erect and strong

1:03

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Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead

1:04

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Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife

1:01

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A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne

1:02

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I lived with visions for my company

1:05

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My own Beloved, who has lifted me

1:06

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My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!

1:08

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I think of thee!–my thoughts do twine and bud

1:05

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I see thine image through my tears tonight

1:04

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Thou comest! All is said without a word

1:01

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The first time that the sun rose on thine oath

1:03

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Yes, call me by my pet-name! Let me hear

1:03

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With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee

1:01

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If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

1:00

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When we first met and loved, I did not build

1:06

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Pardon, oh, pardon that my soul should make

1:01

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First time he kissed me, he but only kissed

1:13

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Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace

1:04

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Oh yes! they love all through this world of ours!

1:05

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I thank all who have loved me in their hearts

1:02

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My future will not copy fair my past

1:05

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How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

1:09

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Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers

1:09

Read by Kirsten Ferreri