end, this is how she speaks, a noble utterance of
serene love, lofty intelligence, of spiritual power and of the
forgiveness of eternity.

For that most woeful man my husband once,
Who, needing respite, still draws vital breath,
I--pardon him? So far as lies in me,
I give him for his good the life he takes,
Praying the world will therefore acquiesce.
Let him make God amends,--none, none to me
Who thank him rather that, whereas strange fate
Mockingly styled him husband and me wife,
Himself this way at least pronounced divorce,
Blotted the marriage bond: this blood of mine
Flies forth exultingly at any door,
Washes the parchment white, and thanks the blow
We shall not meet in this world nor the next,
But where will God be absent? In His face
Is light, but in His shadow healing too:
Let Guido touch the shadow and be healed!
And as my presence was importunate,--
My earthly good, temptation and a snare,--
Nothing about me but drew somehow down
His hate upon me,--somewhat so excused
Therefore, since hate was thus the truth of him,--
May my evanishment for evermore
Help further to relieve the heart that cast
Such object of its natural loathing forth!
So he was made; he nowise made himself:
I could not love him, but his mother did.
His soul has never lain beside my soul:
But for the unresisting body,--thanks!
He burned that garment spotted by the flesh.
Whatever he touched is rightly ruined: plague
It caught, and disinfection it had craved
Still but for Guido; I am saved through him
So as by fire; to him--thanks and farewell!

Thus, pure at heart and sound of head, a natural, true woman in her
childhood, in her girlhood, and when she is tried in the fire--by nature
gay, yet steady in suffering; brave in a hell of fears and shame;
clear-sighted in entanglements of villany; resolute in self-rescue;
seeing and claiming the right help and directing it rightly; rejoicing
in her motherhood and knowing it as her crown of glory, though the child
is from her infamous husband; happy in her motherhood for one fortnight;
slain like a martyr; loving the true man with immortal love; forgiving
all who had injured her, even her murderer; dying in full faith and love
of God, though her life had been a crucifixion; Pompilia passes away,
and England's men and women will be always grateful to Browning for h