Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Reading room

1Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,

2Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?

3And would the sun for thee more coldly shine

4Because of grave-damps falling round my head?

5I marvelled, my Beloved, when I read

6Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—

7But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine

8While my hands tremble ? Then my soul, instead

9Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.

10Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!

11As brighter ladies do not count it strange,

12For love, to give up acres and degree,

13I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange

14My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!

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“Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-23-is-it-indeed-so-if-i-lay-here-dead

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead
Poet: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Length: 14 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Death & Loss, Love, 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: 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
End rhyme: ABBAACBADEDEDE.
Line length: Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

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Author record: Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861
Source record: PoetryDBSonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead 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 b94e009765ee3135…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Death & Loss Love Peace

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