Correspondence

23.  EBB to Mary Moulton-Barrett

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 18.

[Hope End]

On the first of May. Mama’s birth day—1815. [1]

Come Oh my Muse, Sing of the first of May

Kind Heaven to me a precious boon has given

For Earth was blest with thee on this fair day

And when death comes, thou’lt rise to smiling Heav’n

Accept this pledge of love my dear Mama

And cheer my verses with a bounteous smile

Aurora sings in her triumphal car

And Natures Music does the hour beguile.

Publication: HUP, I, 86 (from copy in Mary Moulton-Barrett’s hand, Huntington Library).

Source: Copy in Mary Moulton-Barrett’s hand in “Poems by EBB,” Berg Collection.

1. Her 34th birthday.

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