For the remaining days of the month, I will post love letters written by classical writers. Let's start with this letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Robert Browning written 10 January 1846.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Born: 6 March 1806
Kelloe, Durham, England
Died: 29 June 1861 (aged 55)
Florence, Italy
Occupation: Poet
Nationality: English
...Do you know, when you have told me to think of you, I have been feeling ashamed of thinking of you so much, of thinking of only you--which is too much, perhaps. Shall I tell you? It seems to me, to myself, that no man was ever before to any woman what you are to me--the fullness must be in proportion, you know, to the vacancy...and only I know what was behind--the long wilderness without blossoming rose...and the capacity for happiness, like a black gaping hole, before this silver flooding. Is it wonderful that I should stand as in a dream, and disbelieve--not you--but my own fate?
Was ever any one taken suddenly from a lampless dungeon and placed upon the pinnacle of a mountain without the head turning round and the heart turning faint, as mine do? And you love me more, you say? Shall I thank you or God? Both, indeed, and there is no possible return from me to either of you! I thank you as the unworthy may...and as we all thank God. How shall I ever prove what my heart is to you? How will you ever see it as I feel it?
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