Elizabeth Barrett Browning citations

Elizabeth Barrett Browning , née le 6 mars 1806 à Coxhoe Hall, dans le comté de Durham, et morte le 29 juin 1861 à Florence, est une poétesse, essayiste et pamphlétaire anglaise de l'ère victorienne.

Ses parents, Edward Moulton-Barrett et Mary Graham-Clarke, ont eu douze enfants, huit garçons et quatre filles, dont l'une décède alors qu'Elizabeth a huit ans. Dès son plus jeune âge, elle commence à écrire. Son intérêt la porte vers les œuvres de l'Antiquité gréco-latine et hébraïque lues dans le texte. Elle cultive aussi les grands classiques anglais, français, allemands et italiens.

Sa vie bascule lorsque, à la fin de son adolescence, elle est frappée par une paralysie sans doute d'origine psychosomatique, aggravée par la perte de sa mère en 1828 et, surtout, par le décès tragique, en 1840, de son frère préféré, Edward. Elle vit alors en recluse dans sa chambre du 50, Wimpole Street à Londres, auprès d'un père à l'affection tyrannique envers ses enfants auxquels il entend imposer le célibat.

Le poète Robert Browning, ébloui par la lecture d'un recueil de ses poèmes, entreprend avec elle une correspondance qui devient vite amoureuse. Au bout de deux ans, le couple se marie clandestinement et s'enfuit en Italie, où il réside jusqu'à la mort d'Elizabeth en 1861.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning est surtout connue pour deux œuvres, Sonnets from the Portuguese dans lequel elle chante son amour naissant, puis triomphant, pour Robert Browning, et Aurora Leigh, long roman en vers où elle aborde des problèmes historiques, sociaux et politiques, mais aussi retrace l'itinéraire personnel, intellectuel et moral d'une artiste revendiquant sa féminité et l'accomplissement de sa vocation.

C'est l'une des figures majeures de la poésie victorienne, un écrivain à la fois engagé et lyrique, à la culture encyclopédique, qui, comme elle l'écrit dans Aurora Leigh, s'applique à « analyser, confronter et questionner » , tout en exprimant les turbulences ou les extases de son cœur. Wikipedia  

✵ 6. mars 1806 – 29. juin 1861   •   Autres noms Elizabeth Barret Browningová, ಎಲಿಜಬೆತ್ ಬ್ಯಾರೆಟ್ ಬ್ರೌನಿಂಗ್
Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 88   citations 0   J'aime

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Citations en anglais

“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Contexte: And truly, I reiterate,.. nothing's small!
No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee,
But finds some coupling with the spinning stars;
No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere;
No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim:
And, — glancing on my own thin, veined wrist, —
In such a little tremour of the blood
The whole strong clamour of a vehement soul
Doth utter itself distinct. Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more, from the first similitude.

Bk. VII, l. 812-826.

“Whoso loves
Believes the impossible.”

Book V.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Variante: Whoso loves
Believes the impossible.

“Quick-loving hearts… may quickly loathe.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning livre Sonnets from the Portuguese

Source: Sonnets from the Portuguese

“If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning livre Sonnets from the Portuguese

No. XIV
Source: Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Contexte: If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
"I love her for her smile —her look —her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,—
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning livre Sonnets from the Portuguese

No. LXIII
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Variante: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach
Contexte: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
Contexte: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

“I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning livre Sonnets from the Portuguese

No. LXIII
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Contexte: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

“But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning livre Sonnets from the Portuguese

No. XIV
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Contexte: If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
"I love her for her smile —her look —her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,—
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

“To hold together what he was and is.”

Bk. I, l. 1-8.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Contexte: Of writing many books there is no end;
And I who have written much in prose and verse
For others' uses, will write now for mine,—
Will write my story for my better self,
As when you paint your portrait for a friend,
Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it
Long after he has ceased to love you, just
To hold together what he was and is.

“I praise Thee while my days go on;
I love Thee while my days go on”

St. 23 -24.
De Profundis (1862)
Contexte: p>I praise Thee while my days go on;
I love Thee while my days go on:
Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost,
With emptied arms and treasure lost,
I thank Thee while my days go on.And having in thy life-depth thrown
Being and suffering (which are one),
As a child drops his pebble small
Down some deep well, and hears it fall
Smiling — so I. THY DAYS GO ON.</p

“Unless you can die when the dream is past —
Oh, never call it loving!”

A Woman's Shortcomings http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning/14908, st. 5 (1850).
Contexte: Unless you can muse in a crowd all day
On the absent face that fixed you;
Unless you can love, as the angels may,
With the breadth of heaven betwixt you;
Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,
Through behoving and unbehoving;
Unless you can die when the dream is past —
Oh, never call it loving!

“And truly, I reiterate, . . nothing's small!”

Bk. VII, l. 812-826.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Contexte: And truly, I reiterate,.. nothing's small!
No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee,
But finds some coupling with the spinning stars;
No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere;
No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim:
And, — glancing on my own thin, veined wrist, —
In such a little tremour of the blood
The whole strong clamour of a vehement soul
Doth utter itself distinct. Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more, from the first similitude.

“I cannot speak
In happy tones”

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 514.
Contexte: I cannot speak
In happy tones; the tear drops on my cheek
Show I am sad;
But I can speak
Of grace to suffer with submission meek,
Until made glad.
I cannot feel
That all is well, when dark'ning clouds conceal
The shining sun;
But then I know
God lives and loves; and say, since it is so,
"Thy will be done."

“Life, struck sharp on death,
Makes awful lightning.”

Bk. I, l. 210-214.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Contexte: Life, struck sharp on death,
Makes awful lightning. His last word was, 'Love–'
'Love, my child, love, love!'–(then he had done with grief)
'Love, my child.' Ere I answered he was gone,
And none was left to love in all the world.

“Instruct thine eyes to keep their colours true,
And tell thy soul, their roots are left in mine.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning livre Sonnets from the Portuguese

No. LXIV
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Contexte: Here's ivy! — take them, as I used to do
Thy flowers, and keep them where they shall not pine.
Instruct thine eyes to keep their colours true,
And tell thy soul, their roots are left in mine.

“I cannot feel
That all is well, when dark'ning clouds conceal
The shining sun;
But then I know
God lives and loves; and say, since it is so,
"Thy will be done."”

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 514.
Contexte: I cannot speak
In happy tones; the tear drops on my cheek
Show I am sad;
But I can speak
Of grace to suffer with submission meek,
Until made glad.
I cannot feel
That all is well, when dark'ning clouds conceal
The shining sun;
But then I know
God lives and loves; and say, since it is so,
"Thy will be done."

“What was he doing, the great god Pan,
Down in the reeds by the river?”

A Musical Instrument http://www.webterrace.com/browning/A%20Musical%20Instrument.htm, st. 1 (1860).
Contexte: What was he doing, the great god Pan,
Down in the reeds by the river?
Spreading ruin and scattering ban,
Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,
And breaking the golden lilies afloat
With the dragon-fly on the river.

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