Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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- Posts: 2692
- Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Papa, you changed after Mama died,
forbidding your daughters from marrying.
I accepted that decision
but then Robert’s letters arrived,
like birds through an open window.
After meeting him more letters
quickly flocked in,
one saying
he loved me. Impetuous,
absurd, I insisted. Never mention love
again. Inevitably, like the moon
"love" kept popping up.
Papa would never agree to my marrying.
To broach the point would have meant
all doors locked from outsiders,
even letters turned away.
What else could Robert and I do
but elope?
Crossing the Channel
was nothing compared to the distance
that opened between me and you, Papa.
Yet here I am, disinherited, an island
you have purged from your map.
Oh, Papa, for too long
I was an invalid whose friends
existed on paper.
Thank god, Robert's love has stayed
as steadfast as the seasons,
my heart no longer merely
a postal destination.
Papa, you changed after Mama died,
forbidding your daughters from marrying.
I accepted that decision
but then Robert’s letters arrived,
like birds through an open window.
After meeting him more letters
quickly flocked in,
one saying
he loved me. Impetuous,
absurd, I insisted. Never mention love
again. Inevitably, like the moon
"love" kept popping up.
Papa would never agree to my marrying.
To broach the point would have meant
all doors locked from outsiders,
even letters turned away.
What else could Robert and I do
but elope?
Crossing the Channel
was nothing compared to the distance
that opened between me and you, Papa.
Yet here I am, disinherited, an island
you have purged from your map.
Oh, Papa, for too long
I was an invalid whose friends
existed on paper.
Thank god, Robert's love has stayed
as steadfast as the seasons,
my heart no longer merely
a postal destination.
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- Posts: 1619
- Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17
Re: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Excellent
I've read the letters.
"an island you purged from your map"
I've read the letters.
"an island you purged from your map"
Re: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In the end love wins, especially like-
I was an invalid whose friends
existed on paper.
I was an invalid whose friends
existed on paper.
Re: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
really great: “like birds through an open window”
great poem
i might end it this way:
Yet here I am, disinherited, an island
you have purged from your map.
Oh, Papa, for too long
I was an invalid whose friends
existed on paper.
My heart’s no longer merely
a postal destination.
but maybe not.
great poem
i might end it this way:
Yet here I am, disinherited, an island
you have purged from your map.
Oh, Papa, for too long
I was an invalid whose friends
existed on paper.
My heart’s no longer merely
a postal destination.
but maybe not.
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- Posts: 2692
- Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03
Re: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Ken, Dale, Billy -- thank you
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- Posts: 1619
- Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17
Re: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
This is my pick for IBPC. See my comments on the other forum as well
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- Posts: 2692
- Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03
Re: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I appreciate it, Ken, but I plan to submit this poem to a publication