Aurora Leigh and Other Poems Quotes

“O Life,
How oft we throw it off and think, — 'Enough,
Enough of life in so much! — here's a cause
For rupture; — herein we must break with Life,
Or be ourselves unworthy; here we are wronged,
Maimed, spoiled for aspiration: farewell Life!'
— And so, as froward babes, we hide our eyes
And think all ended. — Then, Life calls to us
In some transformed, apocryphal, new voice,
Above us, or below us, or around . .
Perhaps we name it Nature's voice, or Love's,
Tricking ourselves, because we are more ashamed
To own our compensations than our griefs:
Still, Life's voice! — still, we make our peace with Life.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh and Other Poems

“A harmless life, she called a virtuous life,
A quiet life, which was not life at all . . .”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh and Other Poems

“The chances are that, being a woman, young,
And pure, with such a pair of large, calm eyes,
You write as well...and ill...upon the whole,
As other women. If as well, what then?
If even a little better,..still, what then?
We want the Best in art now, or no art." (L144-149)”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh and Other Poems

“We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book
And calculating profits - so much help
By so much rending. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth -
'Tis then we get the right good from a book.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh and Other Poems