Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Hero's Lamp (Texas corrected fair copy manuscript)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1875?
Type of Manuscript: Corrected draft

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

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Hero's Lamp
  • That lamp there fill'st in Eros' name to-night,
  • O Hero, shall the Sestian augurs take
  • To-morrow, and for drowned Leander's sake
  • To Anteros its fireless lip shall plight.
  • Aye, waft the unspoken vow. Yet dawn's first light
  • On ebbing storm and life twice ebb'd must break;
  • While 'neath no sunrise, by the Avernian lake,
  • Lo! Where love walks, Death's pallid neophyte!
  • That lamp within Anteros' shadowy gloomy shrine
  • 10Shall stand unlit (for so the gods decree)
  • Till some one man the auspicious ?ing happy issue see
  • Of a life's love and bid its flame to shine:
  • Which still must may rest unfir'd: for mine or thine,
  • O brother, what brought love to thee or me?
DG Rossetti
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[Note to the Poem]
When Leander was drowned, the

inhabitants of Sestis consecrated

Hero's lantern to Anteros; & he

that had good success in his love

should light the candle: but never

any man was found to light it.

Burton: Anat: Melanch.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Copyright: © Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin