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Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: For the Holy Family by Michelangelo (in the National Gallery) (Rosenbach Library copy)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1880
Type of Manuscript: fair copy
Scribe: DGR

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

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more about For The Holy Family, By Michelangelo. (In the National Gallery.)
For The Holy Family

by Michael Angelo

in the National Gallery.
  • Turn not the prophet's page, O Son! He knew
  • All that thou hast to suffer, and hath writ.
  • Not yet thine hour of knowledge. Infinite
  • The sorrows that thy manhood's years must rue
  • And dire acquaintance of thy grief. That clue
  • Thy spirits of most mournful ministerings
  • Seek through the yon scroll in silence. For these things
  • The angels have desired to look into.
  • Still before Eden waves the fiery sword,—
  • 10 Her Tree of Life unransomed: whose sad Tree
  • Of Knowledge yet to growth of Calvary
  • Must yield its Tempter,—Hell the earliest dead
  • Of Earth resign,—and yet, O Son and Lord!
  • The seed o' the woman bruise the serpent's head.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 10-1880.rosenbach.rad.xml
Copyright: By permission of the Rosenbach Library