I lived with visions for my company
Instead of men and women, years ago,
And found them gentle mates, nor thought to know
A sweeter music than they played to me.
But soon their trailing purple was not free
Of this world’s dust, their lutes did silent grow,
And I myself grew faint and blind below
Their vanishing eyes. Then thou didst come—to be ,
Beloved, what they seemed . Their shining fronts,
Their songs, their splendours—better, yet the same,
As river-water hallowed into fonts—
Met in thee, and from out thee overcame
My soul with satisfaction of all wants—
Because God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.
Public-domain source text
XXVI
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/elizabeth-barrett-browning_sonnets-from-the-portuguese
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