Lyric Poem · Love
Evelyn Hope
1Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!
2 Sit and watch by her side an hour.
3That is her book-shelf, this her bed;
4 She plucked that piece of geranium-flower,
5Beginning to die too, in the glass;
6 Little has yet been changed, I think:
7The shutters are shut, no light may pass
8 Save two long rays thro' the hinge's chink.
9Sixteen years old when she died!
10 Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name;
11It was not her time to love; beside,
12 Her life had many a hope and aim,
13Duties enough and little cares,
14 And now was quiet, now astir,
15Till God's hand beckoned unawares, —
16 And the sweet white brow is all of her.
17Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope?
18 What, your soul was pure and true,
19The good stars met in your horoscope,
20 Made you of spirit, fire and dew —
21And just because I was thrice as old
22 And our paths in the world diverged so wide,
23Each was naught to each, must I be told?
24 We were fellow mortals, naught beside?
25No, indeed! for God above
26 Is great to grant, as mighty to make,
27And creates the love to reward the love:
28 I claim you still, for my own love's sake!
29Delayed it may be for more lives yet,
30 Thro' worlds I shall traverse, not a few:
31Much is to learn, much, to forget
32 Ere the time be come for taking you.
33But the time will come, at last it will,
34 When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)
35In the lower earth in the years long still,
36 That body and soul so pure and gay?
37Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,
38 And your mouth of your own geranium's red —
39And what would you do with me, in fine,
40 In the new life come in the old one's stead.
41I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,
42 Given up myself so many times,
43Gained me the gains of various men,
44 Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
45Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
46 Either I missed or itself missed me:
47And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope!
48 What is the issue? let us see!
49I loved you, Evelyn, all the while!
50 My heart seemed full as it could hold;
51There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,
52 And the red young mouth, and the hair's young gold.
53So hush, — I will give you this leaf to keep:
54 See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand!
55There, that is our secret: go to sleep!
56 You will wake, and remember, and understand.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Evelyn Hope” by Robert Browning — quilloak.com/poems/evelyn-hope
Quick facts
- Poem
- Evelyn Hope
- Poet
- Robert Browning
- Length
- 56 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Hope, Peace
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 56 lines · 7 octaves
- Line length
- Lines run 8-10 syllables (median 9). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Browning1812–1889
- Source record
- PoetryDBEvelyn Hope by robert-browning, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 6acc967cca0385f8…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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