Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Данте Габриэль Россетти)

The House of Life. Sonnet 58. True Woman – 3. Her Heaven

If to grow old in Heaven is to grow young,
(As the Seer saw and said,) then blest were he
With youth for evermore, whose heaven should be
True Woman, she whom these weak notes have sung.
Here and hereafter,--choir-strains of her tongue,--
Sky-spaces of her eyes,--sweet signs that flee
About her soul's immediate sanctuary,--
Were Paradise all uttermost worlds among.

The sunrise blooms and withers on the hill
Like any hillflower; and the noblest troth
Dies here to dust. Yet shall Heaven's promise clothe
Even yet those lovers who have cherished still
This test for love:--in every kiss sealed fast
To feel the first kiss and forbode the last.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s other poems:

  1. The House of Life. Sonnet 17. Beauty’s Pageant
  2. The House of Life. Sonnet 92. The Sun’s Shame – 1
  3. The Staff and Scrip
  4. The House of Life. Sonnet 35. The Lamp’s Shrine
  5. The House of Life. Sonnet 21. Love-Sweetness

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