Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Life and Love

I.
Fast this Life of mine was dying,
        Blind already and calm as death,
Snowflakes on her bosom lying
        Scarcely heaving with her breath.

II.
Love came by, and having known her
        In a dream of fabled lands,
Gently stooped, and laid upon her
        Mystic chrism of holy hands;

III.
Drew his smile across her folded
        Eyelids, as the swallow dips;
Breathed as finely as the cold did
        Through the locking of her lips.

IV.
So, when Life looked upward, being
        Warmed and breathed on from above,
What sight could she have for seeing,
        Evermore ... but only Love?