English Poetry at the Poetry Monster. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Poem After the French Liberation of Italy.

Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

After the French Liberation of Italy

AS when the last of the paid joys of love
Has come and gone; and with a single kiss
At length, and with one laugh of satiate bliss,
The wearied man a minute rests above
The wearied woman, no more urged to move
In those long throes of longing, till they glide,
Now lightlier clasped, each to the other's side,
In joys past acting, not past dreaming of:'
So Europe now beneath this paramour
Lies for a little out of use,'full oft
Submissive to his lust, a loveless whore.
He wakes, she sleeps, the breath falls slow and soft.
Wait: the bought body holds a birth within,
An harlot's child, to scourge her for her sin. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s other poems:

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 17. Beauty’s Pageant
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 35. The Lamp’s Shrine
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 21. Love-Sweetness
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 50. Willowwood – 2
5. The Staff and Scrip

The Last Poems

To the Russian version

Try english.poetry.monster – a standalone website dedicated to Anglophone poetry from around the world.

Poetry In English