Astarte Syriaca (Texas MS)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1
© Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas
at Austin.
Astarte Syriaca
DGR
1877?
fair copy
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
4 7/16 x 7 1/8 in. sheets written on recto. The sheet is folded into
four pages of which one is black and bordered. Watermark reads: JOYNSTON SUPER FINE
Commentary
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 and 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.
D.G. Rossetti