AURORA LEIGH.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1857.

LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

DEDICATION TO
JOHN KENYON, ESQ.

The words ‘cousin’ and ‘friend’ areconstantly recurring in this poem, the last pages of which have beenfinished under the hospitality of your roof, my own dearest cousin andfriend;—cousin and friend, in a sense of less equality and greaterdisinterestedness than ‘Romney’’s.

Ending, therefore, and preparing once more to quit England, I ventureto leave in your hands this book, the most mature of my works, and theone into which my highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered:that as, through my various efforts in literature and steps in life,you have believed in me, borne with me, and been generous to me, farbeyond the common uses of mere relationship or sympathy of mind, so youmay kindly accept, in sight of the public, this poor sign of esteem,gratitude, and affection, from

your unforgetting
E. B. B.

39, Devonshire Place,
October 17, 1856.

[1]

AURORA LEIGH.

FIRST BOOK.

Of writing many books there is no end;And I who have written much in prose and verseFor others’ uses, will write now for mine,—Will write my story for my better self,As when you paint your portrait for a friend,Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at itLong after he has ceased to love you, justTo hold together what he was and is.

I, writing thus, am still what men call young;I have not so far left the coasts of lifeTo travel inland, that I cannot hearThat murmur of the outer InfiniteWhich unweaned babies smile at in their sleepWhen wondered at for smiling; not so far,But still I catch my mother at her postBeside the nursery-door, with finger up,‘Hush, hush—here’s to

...

AURORA LEIGH.

FIRST BOOK.

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