Religion

Finite and Infinite

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806–1861

From Prometheus Bound, and Other Poems (1851)

Religion

The wind sounds only in opposing straights,
The sea, beside the shore; man's spirit rends
Its quiet only up against the ends
Of wants and oppositions, loves and hates,
Where worked and worn by passionate debates,
And losing by the loss it apprehends,
Its flesh rocks round, and every breath it sends,
Is ravelled to a sigh. All tortured states
Suppose a straightened place. Jehovah Lord,
Make room for rest, around me! Out of sight
Now float me, of the vexing land abhorred,
Till, in deep calms of space, my soul may right
Her nature; shoot large sail on lengthening cord,
And rush exultant on the Infinite.

MLA

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Finite and Infinite.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/302/.

Chicago

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Finite and Infinite.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/302/.

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