Discontent

LIGHT human nature is too lightly tost

And ruffled without cause, complaining on—

Restless with rest, until, being overthrown,

It learneth to lie quiet. Let a frost

Or a small wasp have crept to the inner-most

Of our ripe peach, or let the wilful sun

Shine westward of our window,—straight we run

A furlong's sigh as if the world were lost.

But what time through the heart and through the brain

God hath transfixed us,—we, so moved before,

Attain to a calm. Ay, shouldering weights of pain,

We anchor in deep waters, safe from shore,

And hear submissive o'er the stormy main

God's chartered judgments walk for evermore.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (born March 6, 1806, near Durham, Durham county, England—died June 29, 1861, Florence, Italy) English poet whose reputation rests chiefly upon her love poems, Sonnets from the Portuguese and Aurora Leigh, the latter now considered an early feminist text. Her husband was Robert Browning. Political and social themes embody Elizabeth’s later work. She expressed her intense sympathy for the struggle for the unification of Italy in Casa Guidi Windows (1848–51) and Poems Before Congress (1860). In 1857 Browning published her verse novel Aurora Leigh, which portrays male domination of a woman. In her poetry she also addressed the oppression of the Italians by the Austrians, the child labor mines and mills of England, and slavery, among other social injustices. Although this decreased her popularity, Elizabeth was heard and recognized around Europe. Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in Florence on June 29, 1861.

More poems from same author

A Musical Instrument A Year's Spinning Aurora Leigh: Book Two Minstrelsy Only a Curl

Discontent

More poems from same author

Unlock the Power of Language & AI

Lughaat

Spell Checker

OCR