Proud-pied April for Gratitude Monday: Myvoice's sink and fall

What better format than poetry to express gratitude, right? Distilling the appreciation of joys large and small into a framework of words just seems to cry out for a poem. So let’s have one from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Everyone knows her “How do I love thee” sonnet, XLIII. And love can certainly be an manifestation of gratitude (or maybe vice versa; I dunno). But Barrett Browning, who suffered illnesses and pain all her life, also understood that you should seize every possible opportunity to give thanks out loud, since nothing’s guaranteed.

Sonnet XLI

I thank all who have loved me in their hearts,

With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all

Who paused a little near the prison-wall

To hear my music in its louder parts

Ere they went onward, each one to the mart’s

Or temple’s occupation, beyond call.

But thou, who, in my voice’s sink and fall

When the sob took it, thy divinest Art’s

Own instrument didst drop down at thy foot

To hearken what I said between my tears, …

Instruct me how to thank the! Oh, to shoot

My soul’s full meaning into future years,

That they should lend it utterance, and salute

Love that endures, from Life that disappears!