quote · Legacy record
What are we set on earth for? Say to toil: Nor to seek to leave the tending of thy vines, For all the heat of the day, till it declines, And death's mild curfew shall from work assoil. God did anoint thee with His odorous oil To wrestle, not to reign; and he assigns All thy tears over, like pure crystallines, For younger fellow-workers of the soil To wear for amulets. So others shall Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand, From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer, And God's grace fructify through thee to all. The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dewdrop with another near.
What are we set on earth for? Say to toil: Nor to seek to leave the tending of thy vines, For all the heat of the day, till it declines, And death's mild curfew shall from work assoil. God did anoint thee with His odorous oil To wrestle, not to reign; and he assigns All thy tears over, like pure crystallines, For younger fellow-workers of the soil To wear for amulets. So others shall Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand, From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer, And God's grace fructify through thee to all. The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dewdrop with another near.
Approximate author period: c. 1833 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1833 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1806–1861)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- The Optimist’s Good Morning (1911) (1911 AD)
Complete signed selection 167; printed byline: Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911; printed copyright 1907
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.