"Change on Change" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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December 19, 2021 

Change on Change

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

                                                          1.

Three months ago, the stream did flow,
    The lilies bloomed along the edge;
And we were lingering to and fro,—
Where none will track thee in this snow,
    Along the stream, beside the hedge.
Ah! sweet, be free to come and go;
    For if I do not hear thy foot,
    The frozen river is as mute,—
    The flowers have dried down to the root;
    And why, since these be changed since May,
        Shouldst thou change less than they?

                                                          2.

And slow, slow as the winter snow,
    The tears have drifted to mine eyes;
And my two cheeks, three months ago,
Set blushing at thy praises so,
    Put paleness on for a disguise.
Ah! sweet, be free to praise and go;
    For if my face is turned to pale,
    It was thine oath that first did fail,—
    It was thy love proved false and frail!
    And why, since these be changed, I trow,
        Should I change less than thou?

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on December 19, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Change on Change” first appeared in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine LX, no. 372 (October, 1846).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Romantic Movement. She is the author of numerous books, including An Essay on Mind and Other Poems (James Duncan, 1826); Poems (Henry G. Langley, 1844); and Sonnets from the Portuguese (Chapman & Hall, 1850), dedicated to her husband and fellow poet Robert Browning. She died on June 29, 1861.

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
(October, 1846)


“The Winter Bird” by Jones Very
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“The First Snow” by Philip M. Raskin
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