Discontent, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Summary & Analysis

"Discontent" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning explores the fleeting and often irrational nature of human discontent, contrasting it with the eventual calm and acceptance that can be achieved through deeper understanding and spiritual insight. The poem examines the transitory nature of complaints and the transformative power of divine intervention in shaping human perspectives. Discontent by Elizabeth Barrett Browning LIGHT human nature is too lightly tost And ruffled without cause, complaining on-- Restless with rest, until, being overthrown, It learneth to lie quiet. Let a frost Or a small wasp have crept to the inner-most Of our ripe peach, or let the wilful sun Shine westward of our window,--straight we run A furlong's sigh as if the world were lost. But what time through the heart and through the brain God hath transfixed us,--we, so moved before, Attain to a calm. Ay, shouldering weights of pain, We anchor in deep waters, safe from shore, And hear submissive o'er th…