Thursday, April 21, 2011

To George Sand: A Recognition

   by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

True genius, but true woman! dost deny   
Thy woman's nature with a manly scorn   
And break away the gauds and armlets worn   
By weaker women in captivity?   
Ah, vain denial! that revolted cry           
Is sobbed in by a woman's voice forlorn—   
Thy woman's hair, my sister, all unshorn   
Floats back dishevelled strength in agony   
Disproving thy man's name: and while before   
The world thou burnest in a poet-fire,           
We see thy woman-heart beat evermore   
Through the large flame. Beat purer, heart, and higher,   
Till God unsex thee on the heavenly shore,   
Where unincarnate spirits purely aspire!



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