Elizabeth Barratt Browning in Florence, by Christopher Goode

Fast in feminine confines of the House

Your songs fought hard to reach the open air –

From quiet drawing-rooms and salons fair

To Arno’s banks, where soft sweet winds carouse.

Of Quietude you stayed the loving Spouse

Keeping your keener yearnings from despair;

Playing your well-tuned instrument with care –

Well-tended fire no enmity could douse.

 

So, like the sighing of a balmy breeze,

Breathe Exile’s sorrow from an exile’s pen;

Your simple litany of love and peace

Fulfilled by gentle passions – then

A calm devotion that needs never cease,

And, finding Pleasure, finding Home again.