I Thought Once How Theocritus...

"I Thought Once How Theocritus..." is the first song of Libby Larsen's cycle Sonnets From the Portuguese, which sets the text of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Date: 1991Composer: Libby LarsenText: Elizabeth Barrett BrowningSong Collection: Sonnets From the Portuguese

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I. “I thought once how Theocritus had sung…”
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, —
‘Guess now who holds thee?’ — ‘Death,’ I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang, — ‘Not Death, but Love.’

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