to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach
Day 01 - What is your current favourite ship?
Day 02 - What was your very first ship?
Day 03 - A pairing that needs to happen now?
Day 04 - The pairing with the most chemistry?
Day 05 - The pairing with the least chemistry?
Day 06 - The best kiss?
Day 07 - The most heartbreaking scene?
Day 08 - The pairing with the most baggage?
Day 09 - The most believable relationship?
Day 10 - Why aren't these two married in real life?
Day 11 - What is your dream pairing?
Day 12 - Who had the best wedding?
Day 13 - What is your favorite television pairing?
Day 14 - What is your favorite book pairing?
Day 15 - What is your favorite real life pairing?
I LOVE your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,-and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write,-whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your genius, and there a graceful and natural end of the thing. Since the day last week when I first read your poems, I quite laugh to remember how I have been turning and turning again in my mind what I should be able to tell you of their effect upon me, for in the first flush of delight I thought I would this once get out of my habit of purely passive enjoyment, when I do really enjoy, and thoroughly justify my admiration-perhaps even, as a loyal fellow-craftsman should, try and find fault and do you some little good to be proud of hereafter!-but nothing comes of it all-so into me has it gone, and part of me has it become, this great living poetry of yours, not a flower of which but took root and grew-Oh, how different that is from lying to be dried and pressed flat, and prized highly, and put in a book with a proper account at top and bottom, and shut up and put away ... and the book called a 'Flora,' besides! After all, I need not give up the thought of doing that, too, in time; because even now, talking with whoever is worthy, I can give a reason for my faith in one and another excellence, the fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought; but in this addressing myself to you-your own self, and for the first time, my feeling rises altogether. I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart-and I love you too.
~Excerpt from a letter by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett.
It seems like a typical fanboy letter. We’ve all written stuff like this (obviously, nothing as erudite, but still he basically wrote her to say OMG U R GR8). And yet, this is how the greatest true life love story ever begins.
Elizabeth Barrett was an invalid, wasting away in her sickroom, out of a combined lifelong illness, laudanum addiction and grief for the death of her brother. Yet from this sickroom, she was writing some of the most gorgeous poetry on life, death and social issues. Then, Robert Browning, an up-and-coming young poet, whose genius was only admired in small circles-Elizabeth Barrett, among them-while failing in the mass market, writes to her. She writes back. For over a year, their only interaction is through letters, and sending back and forth poetry and Greek translations, acting in essence as betas for each other.
It’s over a year before they meet face to face. Robert is so moved by whatever happened then that he immediately went home and wrote her a proposal of marriage (the only one of their courtship letters which was destroyed). He is rejected. She feels herself too near to death, too lost to grief, too controlled by her father, to ever marry. Yet she’s getting better. She’s taking more exercise. She’s growing stronger. Eventually, Robert asks again, and they elope, going to the Continent, and eventually to Italy.
This, in and of itself, is a beautiful story. But it gets better. Because the woman who was not supposed to last the winter, lived fifteen more years. They had a son. They both wrote some of the best poetry of their lives-Elizabeth’s Aurora Leigh and Casa Guidi Windows and Robert’s Men and Women. They were true partners, until the moment of her death. Her last word was, “Beautiful.”
And beyond the letters, they have the unforgettable legacy of Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of poems Elizabeth worked on secretly throughout their courtship and the first two years of their marriage, finally handing them quietly over to Robert as a gift. And while everyone knows “How do I love thee, let me count the ways?...” not everyone realizes the months-long struggle Elizabeth recounts before she reaches that point: the way love overcame death in her life.
IX
Can it be right to give what I can give?
To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears
As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
Re-sighing on my lips renunciative
Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live
For all thy adjurations? O my fears,
That this can scarce be right! We are not peers
So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve,
That givers of such gifts as mine are, must
Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas!
I will not soil thy purple with my dust,
Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass,
Nor give thee any love-which were unjust.
Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.
X
Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire. And when I say at need
I love thee . . . mark! . . . I love thee-in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine. There’s nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature’s.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese
There is nothing in the history of the world that tops that. No, I’m serious. I will fight for this one.
Day 16 - What is the absolute worst pairing?
Day 17 - A pairing you thought would never work out, but did?
Day 18 - What is the cutest pairing?
Day 19 - A pairing you've rooted for since the beginning?
Day 20 - The "can't stand the sexual tension anymore" pairing?
Day 21 - A pairing you like and no one else understands why?
Day 22 - A pairing you hate and no one else understands why?
Day 23 - A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out great?
Day 24 - A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out badly?
Day 25 - A pairing that was/would-be adorable, but could never work out?
Day 26 - A pairing that you hated and ended up loving?
Day 27 - A pairing that you loved and ended up hating?
Day 28 - A pairing that you will never understand?
Day 29 - What ship had the best proposal?
Day 30 - Your favorite ship forever and ever and ever?
Day 02 - What was your very first ship?
Day 03 - A pairing that needs to happen now?
Day 04 - The pairing with the most chemistry?
Day 05 - The pairing with the least chemistry?
Day 06 - The best kiss?
Day 07 - The most heartbreaking scene?
Day 08 - The pairing with the most baggage?
Day 09 - The most believable relationship?
Day 10 - Why aren't these two married in real life?
Day 11 - What is your dream pairing?
Day 12 - Who had the best wedding?
Day 13 - What is your favorite television pairing?
Day 14 - What is your favorite book pairing?
Day 15 - What is your favorite real life pairing?
I LOVE your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,-and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write,-whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your genius, and there a graceful and natural end of the thing. Since the day last week when I first read your poems, I quite laugh to remember how I have been turning and turning again in my mind what I should be able to tell you of their effect upon me, for in the first flush of delight I thought I would this once get out of my habit of purely passive enjoyment, when I do really enjoy, and thoroughly justify my admiration-perhaps even, as a loyal fellow-craftsman should, try and find fault and do you some little good to be proud of hereafter!-but nothing comes of it all-so into me has it gone, and part of me has it become, this great living poetry of yours, not a flower of which but took root and grew-Oh, how different that is from lying to be dried and pressed flat, and prized highly, and put in a book with a proper account at top and bottom, and shut up and put away ... and the book called a 'Flora,' besides! After all, I need not give up the thought of doing that, too, in time; because even now, talking with whoever is worthy, I can give a reason for my faith in one and another excellence, the fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought; but in this addressing myself to you-your own self, and for the first time, my feeling rises altogether. I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart-and I love you too.
~Excerpt from a letter by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett.
It seems like a typical fanboy letter. We’ve all written stuff like this (obviously, nothing as erudite, but still he basically wrote her to say OMG U R GR8). And yet, this is how the greatest true life love story ever begins.
Elizabeth Barrett was an invalid, wasting away in her sickroom, out of a combined lifelong illness, laudanum addiction and grief for the death of her brother. Yet from this sickroom, she was writing some of the most gorgeous poetry on life, death and social issues. Then, Robert Browning, an up-and-coming young poet, whose genius was only admired in small circles-Elizabeth Barrett, among them-while failing in the mass market, writes to her. She writes back. For over a year, their only interaction is through letters, and sending back and forth poetry and Greek translations, acting in essence as betas for each other.
It’s over a year before they meet face to face. Robert is so moved by whatever happened then that he immediately went home and wrote her a proposal of marriage (the only one of their courtship letters which was destroyed). He is rejected. She feels herself too near to death, too lost to grief, too controlled by her father, to ever marry. Yet she’s getting better. She’s taking more exercise. She’s growing stronger. Eventually, Robert asks again, and they elope, going to the Continent, and eventually to Italy.
This, in and of itself, is a beautiful story. But it gets better. Because the woman who was not supposed to last the winter, lived fifteen more years. They had a son. They both wrote some of the best poetry of their lives-Elizabeth’s Aurora Leigh and Casa Guidi Windows and Robert’s Men and Women. They were true partners, until the moment of her death. Her last word was, “Beautiful.”
And beyond the letters, they have the unforgettable legacy of Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of poems Elizabeth worked on secretly throughout their courtship and the first two years of their marriage, finally handing them quietly over to Robert as a gift. And while everyone knows “How do I love thee, let me count the ways?...” not everyone realizes the months-long struggle Elizabeth recounts before she reaches that point: the way love overcame death in her life.
IX
Can it be right to give what I can give?
To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears
As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
Re-sighing on my lips renunciative
Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live
For all thy adjurations? O my fears,
That this can scarce be right! We are not peers
So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve,
That givers of such gifts as mine are, must
Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas!
I will not soil thy purple with my dust,
Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass,
Nor give thee any love-which were unjust.
Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.
X
Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire. And when I say at need
I love thee . . . mark! . . . I love thee-in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine. There’s nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature’s.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese
There is nothing in the history of the world that tops that. No, I’m serious. I will fight for this one.
Day 16 - What is the absolute worst pairing?
Day 17 - A pairing you thought would never work out, but did?
Day 18 - What is the cutest pairing?
Day 19 - A pairing you've rooted for since the beginning?
Day 20 - The "can't stand the sexual tension anymore" pairing?
Day 21 - A pairing you like and no one else understands why?
Day 22 - A pairing you hate and no one else understands why?
Day 23 - A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out great?
Day 24 - A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out badly?
Day 25 - A pairing that was/would-be adorable, but could never work out?
Day 26 - A pairing that you hated and ended up loving?
Day 27 - A pairing that you loved and ended up hating?
Day 28 - A pairing that you will never understand?
Day 29 - What ship had the best proposal?
Day 30 - Your favorite ship forever and ever and ever?