Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature T (Delaware Museum, final proof, copy 3)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of publication: 1881 May 18 (circa)
Publisher: F. S. Ellis
Printer: Chiswick Press, C. Whittingham and Co.
Issue: 1

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

Image of page 273 page: 273
Sig. T
  • For thee to take the meting-rod
  • In turn, and so approve on God
  • Thy science of Theometry.
  • To God at best, to Chance at worst,
  • Give thanks for good things, last as first.
  • But windstrown blossom is that good
  • Whose apple is not gratitude.
  • Even if no prayer uplift thy face,
  • 90Let the sweet right to render grace
  • As thy soul's cherished child be nurs'd.
  • Didst ever say, “Lo, I forget”?
  • Such thought was to remember yet.
  • As in a gravegarth, count to see
  • The monuments of memory.
    Image of page 274 page: 274
  • Be this thy soul's appointed scope:—
  • Gaze onward without claim to hope,
  • Nor, gazing backward, court regret.
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CHIMES.
I.
  • Honey-flowers to the honey-comb
  • And the honey-bee's from home.
  • A honey-comb and a honey-flower,
  • And the bee shall have his hour.
  • A honeyed heart for the honey-comb,
  • And the humming bee flies home.
  • A heavy heart in the honey-flower,
  • And the bee has had his hour.
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II.
  • A honey-cell's in the honeysuckle,
  • 10And the honey-bee knows it well.
  • The honey-comb has a heart of honey,
  • And the humming bee's so bonny.
  • A honey-flower's the honeysuckle,
  • And the bee's in the honey-bell.
  • The honeysuckle is sucked of honey,
  • And the bee is heavy and bonny.
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III.
  • Brown shell first for the butterfly
  • And a bright wing by and by.
  • Butterfly, good-bye to your shell,
  • 20And, bright wings, speed you well.
  • Bright lamplight for the butterfly
  • And a burnt wing by and by.
  • Butterfly, alas for your shell,
  • And, bright wings, fare you well.
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IV.
  • Lost love-labour and lullaby,
  • And lowly let love lie.
  • Lost love-morrow and love-fellow
  • And love's life lying low.
  • Lovelorn labour and life laid by
  • 30And lowly let love lie.
  • Late love-longing and life-sorrow
  • And love's life lying low.
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V.
  • Beauty's body and benison
  • With a bosom-flower new blown.
  • Bitter beauty and blessing bann'd
  • With a breast to burn and brand.
  • Beauty's bower in the dust o'erblown
  • With a bare white breast of bone.
  • Barren beauty and bower of sand
  • 40With a blast on either hand.
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VI.
  • Buried bars in the breakwater
  • And bubble of the brimming weir.
  • Body's blood in the breakwater
  • And a buried body's bier.
  • Buried bones in the breakwater
  • And bubble of the brawling weir.
  • Bitter tears in the breakwater
  • And a breaking heart to bear.
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VII.
  • Hollow heaven and the hurricane
  • 50And hurry of the heavy rain.
  • Hurried clouds in the hollow heaven
  • And a heavy rain hard-driven.
  • The heavy rain it hurries amain
  • And heaven and the hurricane.
  • Hurrying wind o'er the heaven's hollow
  • And the heavy rain to follow.
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PARTED PRESENCE.
  • Love, I speak to your heart,
  • Your heart that is always here.
  • Oh draw me deep to its sphere,
  • Though you and I are apart;
  • And yield, by the spirit's art,
  • Each distant gift that is dear.
  • O love, my love, you are here!
  • Your eyes are afar to-day,
  • Yet, love, look now in mine eyes.
  • 10 Two hearts sent forth may despise
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  • All dead things by the way.
  • All between is decay,
  • Dead hours and this hour that dies,
  • O love, look deep in mine eyes!
  • Your hands to-day are not here,
  • Yet lay them, love, in my hands.
  • The hourglass sheds its sands
  • All day for the dead hours' bier;
  • But now, as two hearts draw near,
  • 20 This hour like a flower expands.
  • O love, your hands in my hands!
  • Your voice is not on the air,
  • Yet, love, I can hear your voice:
  • It bids my heart to rejoice
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  • As knowing your heart is there,—
  • A music sweet to declare
  • The truth of your steadfast choice.
  • O love, how sweet is your voice!
  • To-day your lips are afar,
  • 30 Yet draw my lips to them, love,
  • Around, beneath, and above,
  • Is frost to bind and to bar;
  • But where I am and you are,
  • Desire and the fire thereof.
  • O kiss me, kiss me, my love!
  • Your heart is never away,
  • But ever with mine, for ever,
  • For ever without endeavour,
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  • To-morrow, love, as to-day;
  • 40Two blent hearts never astray,
  • Two souls no power may sever,
  • Together, O my love, for ever!
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A DEATH-PARTING.
  • Leaves and rain and the days of the year,
  • ( Water-willow and wellaway,)
  • All these fall, and my soul gives ear,
  • And she is hence who once was here.
  • ( With a wind blown night and day .)
  • Ah! but now, for a secret sign,
  • ( The willow's wan and the water white ,)
  • In the held breath of the day's decline
  • Her very face seemed pressed to mine.
  • 10 ( With a wind blown day and night .)
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  • O love, of my death my life is fain;
  • ( The willows wave on the water-way,)
  • Your cheek and mine are cold in the rain,
  • But warm they'll be when we meet again.
  • ( With a wind blown night and day .)
  • Mists are heaved and cover the sky;
  • ( The willows wail in the waning light ,)
  • O loose your lips, leave space for a sigh,—
  • They seal my soul, I cannot die.
  • 20 ( With a wind blown day and night .)
  • Leaves and rain and the days of the year,
  • ( Water-willow and wellaway,)
  • All still fall, and I still give ear,
  • And she is hence, and I am here.
  • ( With a wind blown night and day .)
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SPHERAL CHANGE.
  • In this new shade of Death, the show
  • Passes me still of form and face;
  • Some bent, some gazing as they go,
  • Some swiftly, some at a dull pace,
  • Not one that speaks in any case.
  • If only one might speak!—the one
  • Who never waits till I come near;
  • But always seated all alone
  • As listening to the sunken air,
  • 10 Is gone before I come to her.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1