Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2 parts)

Book 1 Lines 915-927
 
O life, O poetry,
- Which means life in life! cognisant of life
Beyond this blood-beat, passionate for truth
Beyond these senses! - poetry, my life,
My eagle, with both grappling feet still hot
From Zeus's thunder, who hast ravished me
Away from all the shephards, sheep, and dogs,
And set me in the Olympian roar and round
Of luminous faces for a cup-bearer,
To keep the mouths of all the godheads moist
For everlasting laughters, - I myself
Half drunk across the beaker with their eyes!
How those gods look!
 
Book 2 Lines 96-106
 
'So you you judge!
Because I love the beautiful I must
Love pleasure chiefly, and be overcharged
For ease and whiteness! well, you know the world,
And only miss your cousin, 'tis not much.
But learn this; I would rather take my part
With God's Dead, who can afford to walk in white
Yet spread His glory, than keep quiet here
And gather up my feet from even a step
For fear to soil my gown in so much dust.
I choose to walk at all risks.

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