Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I...

Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
Too calm and sad a face in front of thine;
For we two look two ways, and cannot shine
With the same sunlight on our brow and hair.
On me thou lookest with no doubting care,
As on a bee shut in a crystalline;
Since sorrow hath shut me safe in love's divine,
And to spread wing and fly in the outer air
Were most impossible failure, if I strove
To fail so. But I look on thee -- on thee --
Beholding, besides love, the end of love,
Hearing oblivion beyond memory;
As one who sits and gazes from above,
Over the rivers to the bitter sea.

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 15, published 1850

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942) , "Accuse me not, beseech thee", published 1910 [medium voice and piano], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 15.
by Robert William Jones (1932-) , "Sonnet from the Portuguese, 15", 1972, first performed 1973 [soprano and string quartet], from Love Song, no. ?
by Ernest Campbell MacMillan (1893-1973) , "Sonnet", published 1929. [voice and piano]

GER German (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Date added to the website: 2007-12-07.

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