Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Romancing Royalty Devotional | Dudley Rutherford

[WhatNot]

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
(IJohn 3:1-3)

One morning as Robert Browning, the great poet, sat writing at his desk, his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a world-class poet in her own right, ambled up behind her husband, and gently and slowly kissed him on the side of his face and simultaneously slipped a poem into his side coat pocket. The words she put into his pocket have been described by one critic as the noblest sequence of love words ever put together in the name of romance. Hidden in the sonnet she gave him were these now famous lines: "The face of all the world has changed since first I heard the footsteps of your soul."

My, my, what a statement and what a truth to consider! That's the way all of us should feel about Christ. For Jesus yearns and begs each of us to have a personal relationship with Him. Can we honestly say, "Dear Lord, the face of all the world has changed since first I heard the footsteps of Your soul"? Or would we be forced to say, "Well, Lord, You are a fascinating force and I believe You exist, but not much has changed since I was first introduced to You"? Ours must be a reciprocal love affair or it has no chance of eternal success. Who will open his heart right now and invite Him in? Who will start anew this love affair with Christ? Will you now bow your head and make this hour a turning point?

[Lee N. Field]

Any relation to (St.) John Moses Browning?

[ConorMacNessa]

Do you have the text of the whole sonnet?

[PurpleMan]

How about John M. Browning?

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I’m guessing it’s this one:

Sonnet XLIII

HOW do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Here’s the source:

http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/browne01.html

[Joe 6-pack]

You might be interested in one of the neatest things I've found on youtube...it's an Edison Cylinder recording of Robert Browning.

I'll also use this opportunity to shamelessly promote my own artwork inspired by one of his poems...

[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks very much.

[heartwood]

VII

The face of all the world is changed, I think,
Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul
Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole
Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink
Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
Was caught up into love, and taught the whole
Of life in a new rhythm. The cup of dole
God gave for baptism, I am fain to drink,
And praise its sweetness, Sweet, with thee anear.
The names of country, heaven, are changed away
For where thou art or shalt be, there or here;
And this . . . this lute and song . . . loved yesterday,
(The singing angels know) are only dear
Because thy name moves right in what they say.

[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks for the poem, Heartwood.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

You are right. I went for the one I was familiar with. Good work.