Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Sister Helen (corrected copy of lines 204-231, Princeton/Troxell collection): Rossetti Archive Document
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1879 (circa)
Type of Manuscript: draft manuscript
Scribe: DGR

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

page: [1]
  • ‘A lady's here, by a dark steed brought,
  • Sister Helen,
  • So darkly clad, I saw her not.’
  • ‘See her now or never see aught,
  • Little brother!’
  • ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
  • What more to see, between Hell and Heaven?)
  • ‘Her hood falls back, and the moon shines fair,
  • Sister Helen,
  • 10 On the Lady of Ewern's golden hair.’
  • ‘Blest hour of my power & her despair,
  • Little brother!’
  • ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
  • Hour blest and bann'd, between Hell and Heaven! )
  • ‘Her clasped hands stretch from her bending head,
  • Sister Helen;
  • With the loud wind's wail her sobs are wed.’
  • ‘What wedding-strains hath her bridal-bed,
  • Little brother?’
  • 20 ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
  • What strain but death's, between Hell & Heaven? )
page: [2]
  • All wild her looks, to their instant glow/ [?] flow/ Pale, pale her cheeks to their bridal-glow/ that [?] show Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow,
  • 30 Sister Helen, Sister Helen,
  • Of the blush they were three days ago/To their bridal blush
    Added Text'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago’
  • ‘One morn for joy bliss and three days for woe,
  • Little brother!’
  • ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
  • Three days, three nights between Hell and Heaven! )
  • ‘Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow,
  • Sister Helen,
  • 'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago.’
  • ‘One morn for bliss and three days for woe,
  • 40 Little brother!’
  • ( O Mother, Mary Mother,
  • Three days, three nights, between Hell & Heaven! )
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 2-1851.troxms1.rad.xml
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