1740. EBB to Angela Owen
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 191–192.
[London]
October 19. 1844.
My dearest Angela
It is not easy for me to express to you how very, very kind I considered your letter & how I answered to every word in the warmth & earnestness of my heart. I did not expect you to write. You know I told you so. And so much the more, on that account, was I touched deeply by the fact of your doing so, & by the kindness of the expressions you used– And then, it is far more to me than any vanity, that you should speak as you do of my poems. Your sympathy, dearest Angela, is dear & precious to me, and I thank you for it much. I put it by among my “pleasant things,” [1] .. as one of the sweet fruits of a life, which God has thought good & necessary to load heavily with bitterness. May His name be praised. No evil comes from Him, however much bitterness. And you when you have suffered most, have known this surest.
Dearest Angela, Henrietta & Arabel will go to you whenever you are inclined to see them,—only do not be inclined (this advice from me!) until you are quite able to receive them without suffering from it. Be strong before you think of such a thing, except at a safe distance. I follow your feelings in my thoughts, & know what they must be. I am not a mother,—but the agony of a suddenly wrenched affection, .. that, I know. Also, I fancy that, if I were a mother, and if I lived to see some of my children entering prosperous careers on the earth, I shd look back with a still tenderer & more complete satisfaction to those others, whom it had pleased God to rescue in the days of their childhood, from the earthly toil & trial & vicissitude– Blessed are those children! and “Let none forbid them”! [2] & nothing—not even the natural grief of their parents. May He comfort the parents out of the joy of the child.
Dearest Angela, believe how often I seem to yearn to you in my thoughts! God bless you & dear Mr Owen!
I remain in true affection
your Ba–
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Isaiah 64:11.
2. Cf. Matthew 19:14.
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