Robert Browning

1812-1889

 

Life In A Love

by Robert Browning

Escape me?
Never --
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear --
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed --
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And baffled, get up to begin again, --
So the chace takes up one's life, that's all.
While, look but once from your furthest bound,
At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope drops to ground
Than a new one, straight to the selfsame mark,
I shape me --
Ever
Removed!

Source:

Men And Women
Copyright 1863
Boston: Ticknor And Fields