With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! - and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death.

If God shall choose
I shall love thee but better after death

I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me.

The heart doth recognise thee,
Alone, alone! The heart doth smell thee sweet,
Doth view thee fair, doth judge thee most complete, — -
Though seeing now those changes that disguise thee.

Oh — this life, this life! There is comfort in it, they say, & I almost believe — but the brightest place in the house, is the leaning out of the window! — at least, for me.