Lyric Poem · Love

Sonnet 40 - Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Reading room

1Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!

2I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth.

3I have heard love talked in my early youth,

4And since, not so long back but that the flowers

5Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours

6Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth

7For any weeping. Polypheme's white tooth

8Slips on the nut if, after frequent showers,

9The shell is over-smooth,—and not so much

10Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate

11Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such

12A lover, my Beloved! thou canst wait

13Through sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch,

14And think it soon when others cry 'Too late.'

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“Sonnet 40 - Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-40-oh-yes-they-love-through-all-this-world-of-ours

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 40 - Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!
Poet: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Length: 14 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Sad, Nature

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: 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
End rhyme: ABCADCCAEFEFEF.
Line length: Lines run 10-11 syllables (median 11). 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 40 - Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours! 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 1514d0f7437da556…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Sad Nature

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