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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806, in Durham, England, the first of twelve children. Her father was a plantation owner with large estates in Jamaica. She grew up in Herefordshire where her father had

Where are my wingèd words? Dissolved in air

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61)

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16

Where are my wingèd words? Dissolved in air.
Where is my flower of youth? All withered. Where
My glory? Vanished! Where the strength I knew
From comely limbs? Disease hath changed it too,
And bent them. Where the riches and the lands?—
God hath them! Yea, and sinners' snatching hands
Have grudged the rest. Where is my father, mother,
And where my blessed sister, my sweet brother?—
Gone to the grave!—There did remain for me

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