Robert Browning

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

"Eyes, calm beside thee..."

Eyes, calm beside thee (Lady, could'st thou know!)

May turn away thick with fast-gathering tears:

I glance not where all gaze: thrilling and low

Their passionate praises reach thee--my cheek wears

Alone no wonder when thou passest by;

Thy tremulous lids bent and suffused reply

To the irrepressible homage which doth glow

On every lip but mine: if in thine ears

Their accents linger--and thou dost recall

Me as I stood, still, guarded, very pale,

Beside each votarist whose lighted brow

Wore worship like an aureole, "O'er them all

My beauty," thou wilt murmur, "did prevail

Save that one only."--Lady, could'st thou know!

"Why?" Because all I haply can and do,

And that I am now, all I hope to be,--

Whence comes it save from fortune setting free

Body and soul the purpose to pursue,

God traced for both? If fetters not a few,

Of prejudice, convention, fall from me,

These shall I bid men--each in his degree

Also God-guided--bear, and gaily, too?

But little do or can the best of us:

That little is achieved through Liberty.

Who, then, dares hold, emancipated thus,

His fellow shall continue bound? Not I,

Who live, love, labor freely, nor discuss

A brother's right to freedom. That is "Why."