XII

Indeed this very love which is my boast,
And which, when rising up from breast to brow
Doth crown me with a ruby large enow
To draw men’s eyes and prove the inner cost⁠—
This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,
I should not love withal, unless that thou
Hadst set me an example, shown me how,
When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,
And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak
Of love even, as a good thing of my own.
Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,
And placed it by thee on a golden throne⁠—
And that I love, (O soul, we must be meek!)
Is by thee only, whom I love alone.

Where this text comes from

First published in Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/elizabeth-barrett-browning_sonnets-from-the-portuguese, sonnets-from-the-portuguese.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L14.

Cite this poem

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861). “XII.” First published in Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/elizabeth-barrett-browning/xii/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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