Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Through Death to Life
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1848
Type of Manuscript: fair copy corrected
Scribe: DGR

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

Image of page [1r] page: [1r]
23. Through Death to life. +

  • That voice I hear,—how heard I cannot tell,—
  • Although my home is there, seems from my home:
  • There . . . still it trails along and murmurs “come”;
  • Like the slow death of sound within a bell,
  • Or like the humming whine in some pink shell
  • Wet with the beaded bubbles of the foam,
  • Which bird-eyed damsels stoop for when they roam
  • By the old sea. Wer't not exceeding well
  • To shake my soul out of this tiresome idle life
  • 10 For any voice calling me any whither?
  • And the new life, than this I have, or had,
  • Cannot be worse: the voice is much too sad.
  • Added TextEven to attain calm grief, I'd hasten thither
    I may win blessèd grief by going thither
  • Added TextSince here this sought for joy wearies like strife
    Perchance; sith here such loathesome joys are rife.

G.
Manuscript Addition: (8 m.)
Editorial Description: Notation at lower right indicating it was written in eight minutes.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 22-1848.dukems.rad.xml
Copyright: By permission of the Special Collections Library, Duke University