Love
Love
From Prometheus Bound, and Other Poems (1851)
We cannot live, except, thus, mutually,
We alternate, aware or unaware,
The reflex act of life: and when we bear
Our virtue outward most impulsively,
Most full of invocation, and to be
Most instantly compellant, certes, there,
We live most life, whoever breathes most air
And counts his dying years by sun and sea.
But when a soul, by choice and conscience, doth
Throw out her full force on another soul,
The conscience and the concentration, both,
Make mere life, Love. For Life in perfect whole
And aim consummated, is Love in sooth,
As nature's magnet-heat rounds pole with pole.
Cite this poem
MLA
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Love.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/308/.
Chicago
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Love.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/308/.
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