Eurydice to Orpheus - A Picture by Leighton

by Robert Browning — a poem card from Justes Mots

A brief, intensely lyrical monologue spoken by Eurydice to her lover Orpheus, based on a Frederic Leighton painting. The speaker begs for Orpheus to look at her, asserting that a single gaze will hold her forever and banish all past sorrow and future fear. It distills the myth of lost love into an aching plea for recognition and reunion, emphasizing how the beloved's attention is redemptive—collapsing time and offering transcendence.

But give them me, the mouth, the eyes, the brow!
Let them once more absorb me! One look now
Will lap me round for ever, not to pass
Out of its light, though darkness lie beyond:
Hold me but safe again within the bond
Of one immortal look! All woe that was,
Forgotten, and all terror that may be,
Defied, no past is mine, no future: look at me!…

Themes: sympathy · grief · love · reflection