Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription
Document Title: Death-in-Love (holograph fair copy, U. of British Columbia Library)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1869
Type of Manuscript: fair copy manuscript, no corrections
Scribe: DGR
The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.
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- There came an Image in Life's retinue
- That had Love's wings and bore his gonfalon:
- Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon,
- O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue!
- Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to,
- Shook in its folds; and through my soul heart its power
- Sped trackless as the immemorable hour
- When birth's dark portal groaned and all was new.
- But a veiled woman followed, and she caught
- 10 The banner round its staff, to furl and cling,—
- Then plucked a feather from the bearer's wing,
- And held it to his lips that stirred it not,
- And said to me, “Behold, there is no breath:
- I and this Love are one, and I am Death.”
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File:
13-1869.ubcms.rad.xml
Copyright: ©The University of British Columbia Library, Norman Colbeck Collection