"I was subject to the emperor my father, and bred under him, who was the most proper person living to put me out of conceit with pride, and to convince me that it is possible to live in a palace without the ceremony of guards, without richness and distinction of habit, without torches, statues, or such other marks of royalty and state; and that a prince may shrink himself almost into the figure of a private gentleman, and yet act, nevertheless, with all the force and majesty of his character when the common weal requires it." The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Bk. I. Birds here make song, each bird has his, How thick the tremulous sheep-cries come! Scarce fresher is the mountain sod 5 10 15 Counts his day's spoil, the spotted trout. 20 In the huge world, which roars hard by, But in my helpless cradle I Was breathed on by the rural Pan. Yet here is peace for ever new! Then to their happy rest they pass! Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882 THE BLESSED DAMOZEL1 (Third Version, from Poems, 1870) The blessed2 damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters stilled at even; She had three lilies in her hand. And the stars in her hair were seven. 35 25 39 30 335 40 1 Rossetti wrote this poem in his nineteenth year, or in 1847. W. M. Rossetti remarks that The Blessed Damozel "ranks as highly remarkable among the works of juvenile writers," especially when its "total unlikeness to any other poem then extant is taken into account.' It was published in the second number of The Germ, 1850; it appeared next in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856, and finally in the Poems of 1870. 2i. e. one of the blest in paradise. Her robe ungirt from clasp to hem, No wrought flowers did adorn, But a white rose of Mary's gift, For service meetly worn; Her hair that lay along her back Was yellow like ripe corn. Herseemed she scarce had been a day One of God's choristers; The wonder was not yet quite gone Albeit, to them she left, her day (To one, it is ten years of years. Surely she leaned o'er me her hair It was the rampart of God's house By God built over the sheer depth So high, that looking downward thence It lies in Heaven, across the flood Beneath, the tides of day and night With flame and darkness ridge The void, as low as where this earth Spins like a fretful midge. Around her, lovers, newly met 'Mid deathless love's acclaims, Spoke evermore among themselves Their heart-remembered names; Shall pause in, hushed and slow, 40 And find some knowledge at each pause, 95 And the souls mounting up to God Went by her like thin flames. Or some new thing to know." (Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st! And still she bowed herself and stooped Out of the circling charm; Yea, one wast thou with me That once of old. But shall God lift Until her bosom must have made 45 The bar she leaned on warm, To endless unity 100 And the lilies lay as if asleep The soul whose likeness with thy soul Was but its love for thee?) Along her bended arm. "We two," she said, "will seek the groves With her five handmaidens, whose names This may have been suggested by the Tree of Life (Gen. ii., 9), or by the tree Yggdrasil of the Scandinavian mythology, the tree of existence, which bound together heaven, earth, and hell. In the latter case, it may have been intended to symbolize the mystic union of spirites! existence, as Rossetti represents every leaf, or utmost part responding in praise to the influence of the Divine Spint In Rossetti's picture founded on this poem, "a glim is caught (above the figure of the Blessed Damosel of the groves of paradise, wherein, beneath the shade of the spreading branches of a vast tree, the newly-met lovers embrace and rejoice with each other, on separation over and union made perfect at last." V. Sharp's Russe p. 251. 105 Consider the sea's listless chime: Is the sea's end: our sight may pass No furlong further. Since time was, This sound hath told the lapse of time. No quiet, which is death's,-it hath Listen alone beside the sea, Listen alone among the woods; 5 10 15 SILENT NOON (From, The House of Life, in Ballads and Sonnets, 1881) Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms 'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, 5 Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthornhedge. 'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. Shall I meet other wayfarers at night? Then must I knock, or call when just in sight They will not keep you standing at the door. Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak? Will there be beds for me and all who seek? 15 SYMBOLS (From Devotional Pieces) I watched a rosebud very long Brought on by dew and sun and shower, I watched a nest from day to day, Then in my wrath I broke the bough But the dead branch spoke from the sod, SONNET 15 (From "Monna Innominata," in A Pageant and Other Poems, 1881) Thou Who didst make and knowest whereof we are made, Oh bear in mind our dust and nothingness, Our wordless tearless dumbness of distress Bear Thou in mind the burden Thou hast is i Upon us, and our feebleness unstayed Except Thou stay us: for the long long race Which stretches far and far before our face Thou knowest,-remember Thou whereof we are made. If making makes us Thine, then Thine we are: And if redemption, we are twice Thine own: If once Thou didst come down from heave |