Lyric Poem · Love

Sonnet 19 - The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Reading room

1XIX

2The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise;

3I barter curl for curl upon that mart,

4And from my poet's forehead to my heart

5Receive this lock which outweighs argosies,—

6As purply black, as erst to Pindar's eyes

7The dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwart

8The nine white Muse-brows. For this counterpart, . . .

9The bay-crown's shade, Beloved, I surmise,

10Still lingers on thy curl, it is so black!

11Thus, with a fillet of smooth-kissing breath,

12I tie the shadows safe from gliding back,

13And lay the gift where nothing hindereth;

14Here on my heart, as on thy brow, to lack

15No natural heat till mine grows cold in death.

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“Sonnet 19 - The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-19-the-souls-rialto-hath-its-merchandise

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 19 - The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise
Poet: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Length: 15 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Peace, Death & Loss

Craft notes

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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: 15 lines · 2 stanzas of 1–14 lines
Line length: Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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Author record: Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861
Source record: PoetryDBSonnet 19 - The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise by elizabeth-barrett-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 e634b45464416af0…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Peace Death & Loss

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