Love

White Witchcraft

by Robert Browning 1812–1889

From Asolando: Fancies and Facts (1889)

Love

If you and I could change to beasts, what beast should either be?
Shall you and I play Jove for once? Turn fox then, I decree!
Shy wild sweet stealer of the grapes! Now do your worst on me!

And thus you think to spite your friend--turned loathsome? What, a
toad?
So, all men shrink and shun me! Dear men, pursue your road!
Leave but my crevice in the stone, a reptile's fit abode!

Now say your worst, Canidia! "He 's loathsome, I allow:
There may or may not lurk a pearl beneath his puckered brow:
But see his eyes that follow mine--love lasts there, anyhow."

MLA

Browning, Robert. “White Witchcraft.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_r/203/.

Chicago

Browning, Robert. “White Witchcraft.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_r/203/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Robert Browning