680. Consolation

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 1806-1861


ALL are not taken; there are left behind
  Living Beloveds, tender looks to bring
  And make the daylight still a happy thing,
And tender voices, to make soft the wind:
But if it were not so--if I could find
  No love in all this world for comforting,
  Nor any path but hollowly did ring
Where 'dust to dust' the love from life disjoin'd;
And if, before those sepulchres unmoving
  I stood alone (as some forsaken lamb
Goes bleating up the moors in weary dearth)
Crying 'Where are ye, O my loved and loving?'--
  I know a voice would sound, 'Daughter, I AM.
Can I suffice for Heaven and not for earth?'

The Oxford Book of English Verse, HTML edition