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I just finished Elizabeth Barrett Browning's lovely Sonnets From the Portuguese, but I don't feel qualified to review poetry (as I've never been much of a poet), so I'm only going to share some tidbits from her beautiful work.
Atheists are as dull,
Who cannot guess God's presence out of sight.
Sonnet XX
. . . God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
Sonnet XXVI
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and Ideal Grace.
Sonnet XLIII
O thou God of old!
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these;--
But so much patience, as a blade of grass
Grows by contented through the heat and cold.
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the poem "Patience Taught by Nature"
I did learn, definitely, that poetry is much harder to decipher than prose. Some of the poems and sonnets required my reading through them twice to get the full meaning. But I'm glad for the chance to improve my mind some more.
“All
this she must possess . . . and to all this she must yet add
something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by
extensive reading.”
- Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
