Browning, Elizabeth Barrett; Leeson, Adelaide H. [Ill.]: Sonnets from the Portuguese (London, [circa 1916])

This said,—he wished to have me in his sight

Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring

To come and touch my hand ... a simple thing,

Yet I wept for it!—this, . . . the paper's light . . .

Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed

As if God's future thundered on my past.

This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled

With lying at my heart that beat too fast.

And this . . . O Love, thy words have ill availed

If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!