5 March 1845. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Browning, Robert.

              March 5th 1845.

But I did not mean to strike a ‘tragic chord’; indeed I did not! Sometimes one’s melancholy will be uppermost & sometimes one’s mirth,-the world goes round, you know-& I suppose that in that letter of mine the melancholy took the turn. As to ‘escaping with my life,’ it was just a phrase-at least it did not signify more than that the sense of mortality, & discomfort of it, is peculiarly strong with me when east winds are blowing & waters freezing. For the rest, I am essentially better, & have been for several winters; and I feel as if it were intended for me to live & not die, & I am reconciled to the feeling. Yes! I am satisfied to ‘take up’ with the blind hopes again, & have them in the house with me, .. for all that I sit by the window. By the way .. did the Chorus utter scorn in the μέγ᾽ ὠφελημα-? I think not. It is well to fly towards the light, even where there may be some fluttering & bruising of wings against