perceive.
The headache is too noble for my sex.
You think the heartache would sound decenter,
Since that's the woman's special, proper ache,
And altogether tolerable, except
115 To a woman.'
[AURORA'S REJECTION OF ROMNEY]3 There he glowed on me
With all his face and eyes. 'No other help?'
Said he?'no more than so?'
345 'What help?' I asked.
'You'd scorn my help,?as Nature's self, you say,
Has scorned to put her music in my mouth
Because a woman's. Do you now turn round
And ask for what a woman cannot give?'
350 'For what she only can, I turn and ask,'
He answered, catching up my hands in his,
3. Romney and Aurora have been arguing about trivial poets and ineffectual social reformers. whether art, particularly a young woman's poetry, Aurora is quick to agree that to be merely an infeis useful in a world that, according to Romney, is rior poet would be intolerable to her, but while she full of human suffering. Romney claims that admires Romney's lofty concern for humanity, she women have no ability to generalize from their per-remains untempted to join forces with him. sonal experiences and are, therefore, doomed to be
.
AURORA LEIGH / 1101
And dropping on me from his high-eaved brow
The full weight of his soul,?'I ask for love,
And that, she can; for life in fellowship
355 Through bitter duties?that, I know she can;
For wifehood?will she?'
'Now,' I said, 'may God
Be witness 'twixt us two!' and with the word,
Meseemed'1 I floated into a sudden light
Above his stature,?'am I proved too weak
360 To stand alone, yet strong enough to bear
Such leaners on my shoulder? poor to think,
Yet rich enough to sympathise with thought?
Incompetent to sing, as blackbirds can,
Yet competent to love, like HIM?' I paused;
365 Perhaps I darkened, as the lighthouse will
That turns upon the sea. 'It's always so.
Anything does for a wife.'
'Aurora, dear,
And dearly honoured,'?he pressed in at once
With eager utterance,?'you translate me ill.
370 I do not contradict my thought of you Which is most reverent, with another thought
Found less so. If your sex is weak for art
(And I, who said so, did but honour you
By using truth in courtship), it is strong
375 For life and duty. Place your fecund heart
In mine, and let us blossom for the world
That wants love's colour in the grey of time.
My talk, meanwhile, is arid to you, ay,
Since all my talk can only set you where
