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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 77. SOUL'S BEAUTY, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Under the arch of life, where love and death Last Line: In what fond flight, how many ways and days! Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante Variant Title(s): Sibylla Palmifera Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Soul | |||
UNDER the arch of Life, where love and death, Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe, I drew it in as simply as my breath. Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath, The sky and sea bend on thee,--which can draw, By sea or sky or woman, to one law, The allotted bondman of her palm and wreath. This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise Thy voice and hand shake still,--long known to thee By flying hair and fluttering hem,--the beat Following her daily of thy heart and feet, How passionately and irretrievably, In what fond flight, how many ways and days! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRUEL FALCON by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE WHOLE SOUL by PHILIP LEVINE I KNOW MY SOUL by CLAUDE MCKAY HONORING THE SAND; IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL by ROBERT BLY THE CHINESE PEAKS; FOR DONALD HALL by ROBERT BLY THE LIFE OF TOWNS: TOWN OF THE EXHUMATION by ANNE CARSON FOUND' (FOR A PICTURE) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |
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