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1806–1861

LIFE AND LOVE.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Fast this Life of mine was dying, Blind already and calm as death, Snowflakes on her bosom lying Scarcely heaving with her breath.

Love came by, and having known her In a dream of fabled lands, Gently stooped, and laid upon her Mystic chrism of holy hands;

Drew his smile across her folded Eyelids, as the swallow dips; Breathed as finely as the cold did Through the locking of her lips.

So, when Life looked upward, being Warmed and breathed on from above, What sight could she have for seeing, Evermore... but only LOVE?

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