Sonnet XI

"Sonnet XI" is the second song of Antonio Carlos Defeo's song cycle Three Simple Songs. The song sets the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Date: 1999Composer: Antonio Carlos DefeoText: Elizabeth Barrett BrowningSong Collection: Three Simple Songs

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Sonnet XI
by Antonio Carlos Defeo

And therefore if to love can be desert
And therefore if to love can be desert,
I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale
As these you see, and trembling knees that fail
To bear the burden of a heavy heart, –
This weary minstrel-life that once was girt
To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail
To pipe now ‘gainst the valley nightingale
A melancholy music,–why advert
To these things? O Beloved, it is plain
I am not of thy worth nor for thy place!
And yet, because I love thee, I obtain
From that same love this vindicating grace
To live on still in love, and yet in vain, –
To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face.

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