The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume II Part 34

_L. E. L.'S LAST QUESTION._

"Do you think of me as I think of you?"

(_From her poem written during the voyage to the Cape._)

I.

"Do you think of me as I think of you, My friends, my friends?"--She said it from the sea, The English minstrel in her minstrelsy, While, under brighter skies than erst she knew, Her heart grew dark, and groped there as the blind To reach across the waves friends left behind-- "Do you think of me as I think of you?"

II.

It seemed not much to ask--"as _I_ of _you_?"

We all do ask the same; no eyelids cover Within the meekest eyes that question over: And little in the world the Loving do But sit (among the rocks?) and listen for The echo of their own love evermore-- "Do you think of me as I think of you?"

III.

Love-learned she had sung of love and love,-- And like a child that, sleeping with dropt head Upon the fairy-book he lately read, Whatever household noises round him move, Hears in his dream some elfin turbulence,-- Even so suggestive to her inward sense, All sounds of life a.s.sumed one tune of love.

IV.

And when the glory of her dream withdrew, When knightly gestes and courtly pageantries Were broken in her visionary eyes By tears the solemn seas attested true,-- Forgetting that sweet lute beside her hand, She asked not,--"Do you praise me, O my land?"

But,--"Think ye of me, friends, as I of you?"

V.

Hers was the hand that played for many a year Love's silver phrase for England, smooth and well.

Would G.o.d her heart's more inward oracle In that lone moment might confirm her dear!

For when her questioned friends in agony Made pa.s.sionate response, "We think of thee,"

Her place was in the dust, too deep to hear.

VI.

Could she not wait to catch their answering breath?

Was she content, content with ocean's sound Which dashed its mocking infinite around One thirsty for a little love?--beneath Those stars content, where last her song had gone,-- They mute and cold in radiant life, as soon Their singer was to be, in darksome death?[8]

VII.

Bring your vain answers--cry, "We think of thee!"

How think ye of her? warm in long ago Delights? or crowned with budding bays? Not so.

None smile and none are crowned where lieth she, With all her visions unfulfilled save one, Her childhood's, of the palm-trees in the sun-- And lo! their shadow on her sepulchre!

VIII.

"Do ye think of me as I think of you?"-- O friends, O kindred, O dear brotherhood Of all the world! what are we that we should For covenants of long affection sue?

Why press so near each other when the touch Is barred by graves? Not much, and yet too much Is this "Think of me as I think of you."

IX.

But while on mortal lips I shape anew A sigh to mortal issues, verily Above the unshaken stars that see us die, A vocal pathos rolls; and HE who drew All life from dust, and for all tasted death, By death and life and love appealing, saith _Do you think of me as I think of you?_

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Her lyric on the Polar Star came home with her latest papers.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.