Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/979

 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Herseem'd she scarce had been a day- One of God's choristers,

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

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 lean'd o'er me her hair

Fell all about my face. . . . Nothing the autumn-fall of leaves.

The whole year sets apace.)

It was the rampart of God's house

That she was standing on ; By God built over the bhccr 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 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 hcart-rcmcmber'd names;

And the souls mounting up to God Went by her like thin flames.

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