Prometheus Bound, and other poems/Sonnets from the Portuguese/Sonnet 1

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I.

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."