IX <br /> <br />Can it be right to give what I can give? <br />To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears <br />As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years <br />Re-sighing on my lips renunciative <br />Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live <br />For all thy adjurations? O my fears, <br />That this can scarce be right! We are not peers, <br />So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve, <br />That givers of such gifts as mine are, must <br />Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas! <br />I will not soil thy purple with my dust, <br />Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass, <br />Nor give thee any love—which were unjust. <br />Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.<br /><br />Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-09-can-it-be-right-to-give-what-i-can-giv/
