<title level="doc">Astarte Syriaca
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1
© Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library
Astarte Syriaca
DGR
1877
1 page
DGR
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Tinker 1799
white
11.4 x 18.1 cm
Commentary
Textual History: Composition
Textual History: Revision
Astarte Syriaca.
Mystery: lo! betwixt the sun and moon
Astarte of the Syrians: Venus Queen
Ere Aphrodite was. In silver sheen
Her twofold girdle clasps the infinite boon
Of bliss whereof the heaven & earth commune:
And from her neck's inclining flower-stem lean
Love-freighted lips and absolute eyes that wean
The pulse of hearts to the spheres' dominant tune.
Torch-bearing, her sweet ministers compel
All thrones of light, beyond the sky & sea,
The witnesses of Beauty's face to be:
That face, of Love's all-penetrative spell
Amulet, talisman, and oracle,—
Betwixt the sun and moon a mystery.