5 Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath,

ΙΟ

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!

In this sonnet is felt the rhythmical pursuit of the human heart after beauty which according to Byron is:

"A chase of idle hopes and fears,

Begun in folly, closed in tears."

LOVESIGHT

HOUSE OF LIFE IV

When do I see thee most, beloved one?
When in the light the spirits of mine eyes
Before thy face, their altar, solemnize

The worship of that Love through thee made known?
5 Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,)
Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies
Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,
And my soul only sees thy soul its own?

O love, my love! if I no more should see
10 Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,

Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,-
How then should sound upon Life's darkening slope
The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,
The wind of Death's imperishable wing?

What are the rules for the perfect construction of a modern sonnet; and how does it differ from the Shakesperian and the Miltonic? Analyse the thought of the sestet. Fine critics place Rossetti at the head of all nineteenth century sonnet writers. What is Pre-Raphaelitism? Rossetti is the poet of medieval romanticism.

THE BLESSED DAMOZEL

The blessed damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even ;

5 She had three lilies in her hand,

Her seemed she scarce had been a day
One of God's choristers;

15 The wonder was not yet quite gone
From that still look of hers;

20.

Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten years.

(To one, it is ten years of years.

Yet now, and in this place,
Surely she leaned o'er me her hair

Fell all about my face

Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves.

The whole year sets apace.)

25 It was the rampart of God's house That she was standing on;

30

By God built over the sheer depth
The which is Space begun;

So high, that looking downward thence
She scarce could see the sun.

It lies in Heaven, across the flood
Of ether, as a bridge.

Beneath, the tides of day and night
With flame and darkness ridge

35 The void, as low as where this earth
Spins like a fretful midge.'

40

Around her, lovers, newly met
'Mid deathless love's acclaims,
Spoke evermore among themselves
Their heat-remembered names;
And the souls mounting up to God
Went by her like thin flames.

And still she bowed herself and stooped
Out of the circling charm;

45 Until her bosom must have made
The bar she leaned on warm,

50

And the lilies lay as if asleep

Along her bended arm.

From the fixed place of Heaven she saw

Time like a pulse shake fierce

Through all the world. Her gaze still strove
Within the gulf to pierce

Its path; and now she spoke as when

The stars sang in their spheres.

55 The sun was gone now; the curled moon Was like a little feather

60

Fluttering far down the gulf; and now

She spoke through the still weather.
Her voice was like the voice the stars
Had when they sang together.

(Ah sweet!

Even now, in that bird's song,

Strove not her accents there,

Fain to be harkened? When those bells

Possessed the mid-day air,

65 Strove not her steps to reach my side Down all the echoing stair?)

70

'I wish that he were come to me,

For he will come,' she said.
'Have I not prayed in Heaven?·

Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?

on earth,

Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I feel afraid?

'When round his head the aureole clings, And he is clothed in white,

75 I'll take his hand and go with him To the deep wells of light;

80

As unto a stream we will step down,
And bathe there in God's sight.

'We two will stand beside that shrine,
Occult, withheld, untrod,

Whose lamps are stirred continually

With prayer sent up to God;

And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a little cloud,

85. 'We two will lie i' the shadow of That living mystic tree

90

Within whose secret growth the Dove
Is sometimes felt to be,

While every leaf that His plumes touch
Saith His Name audibly.

'And I myself will teach to him,

I myself, lying so,

The songs I sing here; which his voice
Shall pause in, hushed and slow,

95 And find some knowledge at each pause, Or some new thing to know.'

100

(Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st!
Yea, one wast thou with me

That once of old. But shall God lift

To endless unity

The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but its love for thee?)

'We two,' she said, 'will seek the groves

Where the lady Mary is,

105 With her five handmaidens, whose names Are five sweet symphonies,

IIO

Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.

Circlewise sit they, with bound locks

And foreheads garlanded;

Into the fine cloth white like flame
Weaving the golden thread,

To fashion the birth-robes for them

Who are just born, being dead.