101. Edward Moulton-Barrett (brother) to EBB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 90–91.

[London]

[6 March 1820] [1]

To dearest Ba

on her birthday [2]

_________

No haughty strain of verse employs me now,

No fall of despots and no bo[a]st of Kings,

To sweet affection do I pay my vow,

And sweet affection speaks of milder things;

For tis a sisters birthday that I greet,

A sisters virtues & a sisters song

Which rolling energeticaly sweet

Swell on the ear & to the feelings throng

But could a crown of ivy deck her brow

Yet would she rather hear affections voice

Than, from the capitol the trump of fame should blow,

This sounds her praise that bids her heart rejoice.

_________

Address, on integral page: To / Our dear Sapho. / 62 Baker Street.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Berg Collection.

1. Date and writer’s identity based on copy in Mary Moulton-Barrett’s hand in “Poems by EBB,” Berg Collection.

2. Her 14th birthday.

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