Discontent

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

LIGHT human nature is too lightly tost
And ruffled without cause, complaining on-
Restless with rest, until, being overthrown,
It learneth to lie quiet. Let a frost
Or a small wasp have crept to the inner-most
Of our ripe peach, or let the wilful sun
Shine westward of our window,-straight we run
A furlong's sigh as if the world were lost.
But what time through the heart and through the brain
God hath transfixed us,-we, so moved before,
Attain to a calm. Ay, shouldering weights of pain,
We anchor in deep waters, safe from shore,
And hear submissive o'er the stormy main
God's chartered judgments walk for evermore.





Last updated January 14, 2019