by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
My letters! all dead paper, mute and...
Language: English
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white! And yet they seem alive and quivering Against my tremulous hands which loose the string And let them drop down on my knee to-night. This said, -- he wished to have me in his sight Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring To come and touch my hand . . . a simple thing, Yet I wept for it! -- this, . . . the paper's light . . . Said, Dear I love thee; and I sank and quailed As if God's future thundered on my past. This said, I am thine -- and so its ink has paled With lying at my heart that beat too fast. And this . . . O Love, thy words have ill availed If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 28, first published 1847 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Letters", op. 42 no. ?, published 1928 [ high voice and piano ], from Three Sonnets from the Portuguese [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!", published 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 28 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Libby Larsen (b. 1950), "My letters!", 1991 [ soprano and chamber orchestra or piano ], from Sonnets From the Portuguese , no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Peter Tahourdin (1928 - 2009), "My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!", 1968, first performed 1970 [ speaker, alto, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, and tape ], from cantata Riders in Paradise, cantata [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) , written 1908, appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 28 ; composed by Maria Bach, as Emilie Maria von Bach, Viktor Ullmann.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 138