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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ASOLANDO: NOW by ROBERT BROWNING

Poet Analysis

First Line: OUT OF YOUR WHOLE LIFE GIVE BUT A MOMENT
Last Line: WHILE CHEEKS BURN, ARMS OPEN, EYES SHUT AND LIPS MEET!
Subject(s): LOVE;

OUT of your whole life give but a moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, -- so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, -- condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense --
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me --
Me -- sure that despite of time future, time past, --
This tick of our life-time's one moment you love me!
How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet --
The moment eternal -- just that and no more --
When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut and lips meet!



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