Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Данте Габриэль Россетти)
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’s other poems:
- The House of Life. Sonnet 17. Beauty’s Pageant
- The House of Life. Sonnet 35. The Lamp’s Shrine
- The House of Life. Sonnet 92. The Sun’s Shame – 1
- The House of Life. Sonnet 21. Love-Sweetness
- The House of Life. Sonnet 50. Willowwood – 2
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