BeloveD Be My Everything By Claire Drucker
Beloved Be My Everything
Between 1875 and 1913, Katharine Harris Bradley and Edith
Emma Cooper, Bradley’s niece, published more than 30
volumes of poems and verse drama under the name Michael
Field. Bradley and Cooper were lovers, partners and aunt and
niece respectively, with a 16-year age difference between them.
Michael Field”
was not just a public pseudonym, but also a
shared identity that Bradley and Cooper adopted in their private
life together. All of their work, even their private journals, was
written jointly; Cooper and Bradley claimed that they often
could not tell each other s lines apart. They died within nine
months of each other in 1913 and 1914 and lived together for
almost 40 years.
Mortal, if thou art beloved
to be hidden from an ordinary gaze
Life's offences are removed;
if only to touch my mouth against
yours
All the fateful things that checked thee,
my heart a balm renouncing sorrow,
Hearten, hallow, and protect thee.
remember the abiding filigree we
share.
Grow'st thou mellow? What is age?
Stiffness of body does not mend
Tinct on life's illumined page,
for we are timeless inside eternity,
Where the purple letters glow
our words wend into one thought
Deeper, painted long ago.
before there was language to speak.
What is sorrow? Comfort's prime,
You are my love, my wife, my friend
Love's choice Indian summer clime.
No other would have my bed,
Sickness!—thou wilt pray it worse
suffering borne by two is nearly joy—
For so blessed, balmy nurse.
to climb a mountain, your hands
entwined
in mine
And for death! when thou art dying
my life will pour itself into you—
'Twill be Love beside thee lying.
dahlia, foxglove, lavender abloom.
Death is lonesome? Oh, how brave
Slipping into the windy night
Shows the foot-frequented grave!
under the world we are not alone,
Heaven itself is but the casket
sun, moon and stars
For Love's treasure, ere he ask it,—
could not have conjured love like
this—
Ere with burning heart he follow,
the bridge we’ve forged, the secret
gullies
Piercing through corruption's hollow.only some will ever know the truth of
us—
If thou art beloved, oh then
touch my mouth against yours, arms
entwined
Fear no grief from mortal men.
of
soon they will know the beauty, power
this mind.
—-Michael Field —Claire Drucker
Mao, Douglas. “Love and Beauty Their Prison”: Talking
with Carolyn Dever on Michael Field.” Public Books.
Aug. 3, 2022. https://www.publicbooks.org/carolyn-dever-
on-michael-field-katharine-bradley-edith-cooper/
Michael Field. Poetry Foundation. April 6, 2026.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/michael-field