Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/982

 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

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

Where the lady Mary is, With her five handmaidens, whose names

Are five sweet symphonies, 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.

'He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:

Then will I lay my check To his, and tell about our love,

Not once abash'd or weak: And the dear Mother will approve

My pride, and let me speak.

'Herself shall bring us, hand in hand, To Him round whom all souls

Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads Bowed with their aureoles.

And angels meeting us shall sing To their citherns and citoles.

'There will I ask of Christ the Lord Thus much for him and me:

Only to live as once on earth With Love, only to be,

As then awhile, for ever now

Together, I and he.'

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