The House of Life, A Sonnet Sequence (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Princeton/Troxell collection) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Used with permission of Princeton University. From the Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. All rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium requires express written consent from Princeton University Library. Permissions inquiries should be addressed to Associate University Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. The House of Life Etc. The Original Manuscript of the Sonnets Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869-1881 Miscellaneous collection of working MSS and fair copies [i-iii], 1, 3-41 The collection is an assemblage of different types of single manuscripts. These are laid separately into the volume, on large leaves that have been hand numbered 1-41. There are, however, 43 separate poems in the collection, or parts of poems—two being on the versos of laid in leaves. There are three manuscript pages containing front matter to the sonnet sequence, and five of the leaves have material on their versos. DGR DGR Princeton University Library, Troxell Collection 23288 The bound volume is house in Box 5 folder 3. Blue leather, gold stamped Blue foolscap (14.2 x 9.7 inches) with DGR's manuscripts laid down E TOWGOOD 1911 Commentary
Introduction

The title on the leather cover of this volume is misleading. The manuscript book is not “the original manuscript of the sonnets” of “The House of Life” in any of its versions. It is an artificial assemblage put together in the twentieth century, and not all of the manuscript leaves contain poems that were part of the sonnet sequence.

The contrast with the Fitzwilliam Manuscript the text of “The House of Life” is sharp. The latter was imagined as a kind of “manuscript version” of the sequence and was put together by DGR's friend Fairfax Murray.

This Troxell manuscript also differs completely from the so called Kelmscott Love Sonnets version of the sequence—that is, the group of twenty-five sonnets that DGR arranged as a manuscript gift book for Jane Morris. The latter is an integral, if highly specialized, version of the sequence.

A good many of the sonnets collected in this volume were printer's copy manuscripts for the 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> texts of the poems printed there. All but three of the manuscripts are on sheets of the lined notebook paper that is characteristic of most of DGR's manuscripts. The three exceptions are on leaves 34, 35, and 41. These three manuscripts are small (half sheets) from paper watermarked “G WILMOT”. They measure, respectively (in centimeters) , 11.5 x 18.2, 11.5 x 18.2, and 10.5 x 17.

The remainder of the manuscripts are torn out of DGR's lined notebooks. The manuscripts come from four separate notebooks, two dating from 1869-1873, two from 1880-1881. These are: 1. a notebook (1869-1871) with paper watermarked “J ALLEN & SONS/SUPERFINE” (paper size approx. 17.8 x 22.2 cm), including leaves 5, 6, and 38; 2. a notebook (1869-1873), paper unwatermarked (paper size approx. 18.3 x 21.9 cm), including leaves 3, 8, 14, 22, 30; 3. a notebook (1880-1881), paper watermarked “GURNEY/IVORY LAID” (paper size approx. 17.6 x 22.2 cm), including leaves 2, 4, 7, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 37, 39, 40; 4. a notebook (1880-1881), unwatermarked (paper size approx. 18.2 x 22 cm), including leaves 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 36. The origin of the first leaf (paper size 21.1 x 19.5 cm), containing the title page, is uncertain.

A typescript list of the volume's contents is part of the front matter.

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception History

Iconographic

Printing History

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

This index is a typescript presumably made by Janet Camp Troxell. The House of Life 2. The Sonnet 3. Love Enthroned The World's Woe (The Sun's Shame) VERSO 4. Her Love (True Woman II) 5. True Woman II 6. True Woman III 7. Her Heaven (True Woman III 8. First Fire Through Death to Love (see 2nd version p. 27) 9. Love Enthroned 10. Cassandra II (See Green Book 6. Purple Book 10 & 11 11. Love's Testament 12. Heart's Hope 13. The Lover's Walk 14. The Symphony (Love's Youth's Antiphony) Commandments (Soothsay) See Purple Bk. p.14, 15, 17. 15. Youth's Spring Tribute 16. Love's Pageant (Beauty's Pageant) 17. Genius in Beauty 18. Silent Noon 19. Gracious Moonlight 20. Heart's Haven 21. Mid Rapture 22. Lovelight (Soul Light) The Lamp's Shrine See p. 30 23. Last Fire 24. Love Measure (Equal Troth) 25. The Dark Glass 26. Life in Love 27. Through Death to Love See p. 8 28. Love and Hope 29. Without Her 30. Love's Fatality The Love Lamp VERSO See also p. 22 31. True Woman See also p 4-7 32. Love's Last Gift 33. Transfigured Life 34. The Man's Choice 2. 35.  *     *     *    3. 36. Cloud and Wind 37. From Dawn to Noon 38. Joy Delayed (Hoarded Joy) 39. Vain Virtues 40. The Sun's Shame See also p. 3 41. Run and Won (The Vase of Life) D. G. Rossetti signature (not by DGR) at lower left of the page Manuscript #460 notation at upper left indicating the catalogue source of the manuscript The House of Life: A Sonnet Sequence----- Part I. Youth and Change----- Part II. Change and Fate-----

(The present full series of The House of Life consists of sonnets only. It will be evident that many among those here first added are still the work of earlier years.

To speak in the first person is often to speak most vividly; but these emotional poems are in no sense “occasional.” The “Life” involved is life representative, as associated with love and death, with aspiration and foreboding or with ideal art and beauty. Whether the recorded moment exist in the region of fact or of thought is a question indifferent to the Muse, so long only as her touch can quicken it.)

 Printer: This to be printed in Italics of same size as type. to be printed on a leaf with a blank back. directions for the printer in upper left corner A Sonnet is a moment's monument,— Memorial from the Soul's eternity To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be, Whether for lustral rite or dire portent, Of its own arduous fulness reverent: Carve it in ivory or in ebony, As Day or Night prevail may rule; and let Time see Its flowering crest impearled and orient. A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul,—its converse, to what Power 'tis due:— Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath, In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death. Text cancelled by DGR Part I: Youth and Change. (H of L) DGR's notation indicating the sonnet should be part of “The House of Life” sequence. Love Enthroned I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair:— Truth, with proud awed lips; & Hope, with eyes upcast; And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen past To fires that death/of [?] signal-fires, Oblivion's flight can to scare; And Youth, with some bright spray of woman's hair Yet to his shoulder clinging, since the last Embrace wherein two sweet/kind/fair sweet arms held him fast; And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear. Love's throne was not with these; but far above All passionate wind of welcome & farewell He sat in breathless bowers they dreamed not of; Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, & Hope foretell, And Fame be for Love's sake desirable, And Youth be dear, & Life be sweet to Love. 93 Number written just above the title; probably not DGR's. (The Sun's Shame) DGR's note for changing the title to received version. The World's Woe As some true chief of men, beneath the deep-bowed with stress Of life's disastrous eld, on [?]ing blossoming youth May gaze, & murmur with self-pity & ruth,— “Might I thy fruitless treasure but possess, Such blessing of mine all coming years should bless”: Then sends one glance sigh forth to the unknown goal, And with that thought bitterly feels breathe against his soul The hour swift-paced of nearer nothingness:— Even so the World's grey soul to the green world Sighs now & says: “Ah! woe is me, for whom Dread change portends the inevitable irrevocable doom,— Whose heart's old fire in vapour of shame is furled: Which thou even as of old yore art journeying, All soulless now, yet merry with the Spring.” Her Love DGR's note indicating sonnet title True Woman II. LVII Note (not DGR's) indicating sonnet title and sequence number. II. She loves him; for her infinite soul is Love, And he her lodestar. Passion in her is A glass facing his fire, where the bright bliss Is mirrored, and the heat returned. Yet move That glass, a stranger's amorous flame to prove, And it shall turn, by instant contraries, Ice to the moon; while her pure fire to his For whom it burns, clings close i' the heart's alcove. Lo! they are one. With wifely breast to breast And circling arms, she welcomes all command Of love,—her soul to answering ardours fann'd: Yet as morn springs or twilight sinks to rest, Ah! who shall say she deems not loveliest The hour of sisterly sweet hand-in-hand? (Variation of Sonnet II) DGR's note at the bottom of the page. 56/57 numbering in unknown hand, first number cancelled True Woman II. She loves him; for her infinite soul is Love, And he her lodestar. Passion in her is A glass facing his fire, where the bright bliss Is mirrored, and the heat returned. Yet move That glass, a stranger's amorous flame to prove, And it shall turn, by instant contraries, Ice to the moon; while her pure fire to his For whom it burns, clings close i' the heart's alcove. Lo! they are one. Perchance there was a in love's first day When to Her mind unto his mind her mind faint response gave, His heart to her rich heart. But as sea-spray Over itself aspires till each curved c wave Of shadow is lapped in light,—even so he gave And she their dower. Shall this not last for aye? Received lines 6-7 are written at the foot of the text, but marked for insertion at the proper place. True Woman III. If “To grow old in Heaven is to grow young,” (As the Seer saw and said,) then blest were he With youth for evermore, whose heaven should be True Woman, she whom these weak notes have sung. Here and hereafter,—choir-strains of her tongue,— Sky-spaces of her eyes,—sweet signs that flee The heavenly things that in her eyes have place About her soul's immediate sanctuary,— Those eyes, fair sky-breaks in the auroral face Were Paradise all uttermost worlds among. The sunrise blooms & withers on the hill Like any hillflower; and the noblest troth Dies here to dust. Yet shall Heaven's promise clothe Even yet those lovers who have treasured still This test for love:—in every kiss sealed fast To feel the first kiss and forbode the last. with variations Note (not DGR's) at the foot of the text; referring to the poem's placement with the other two True Woman sonnets. Her Heaven Note (not DGR's) giving the received title of the sonnet III. Her Heaven If to grow old in Heaven is to grow young, (As the Seer saw and said,) then blest were he With youth for evermore, whose heaven should be True Woman, she whom these weak notes have sung. Here and hereafter,—choir-strains of the her tongue,— Sky-spaces of her eyes,—sweet signs that flee About her soul's immediate sanctuary,— Were Paradise all uttermost worlds among. The sunrise blooms and withers on the hill Like any hillflower; and the noblest troth Dies here to dust. Yet shall Heaven's promise clothe Even yet those lovers who have cherished still This test for love:—in every kiss sealed fast To feel the first kiss and forbode the last. (H of L) DGR's note indicating his intention to include the poem in The House of Life. First Fire This hour be her sweet body all my song— Now the same heart-beat blends her gaze with mine,— One parted fire, Love's silent countersign: Her arms lie open, throbbing with their throng Of confluent pulses, bare and fair and strong: And her deep-freighted lips expect me now, Amid the clustering hair that shrines her brow Five kisses broad, her neck ten kisses long. Lo, Love! thy heaven of Beauty; where a sun Thou shin'st; and art a white-winged moon to press By hidden paths to every hushed recess; Yea, and with sinuous lightenings here anon Of passionate change, an instant seen & gone, Shalt light the tumult of this loveliness. The quivering fire of love's uncurtained shrine Potential variant for line 3 at the bottom of the page. white-foot moon white-wreathed Potential variants for “white-winged moon” in line 10. XLI p. 197 Notations (not by DGR) indicating the sonnet's sequence number and its proposed place in the printed text of 1881 (in fact it appeared on p. 203). Through Death to Love Like labour-laden moonclouds faint to flee,— Like From winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold,— Like multiform circumfluence manifold Of the stark soul's night,—like terrors that agree On Of fire dumb-tongued, & inarticulate sea,— So [??] eyes Even such, within some glass dimmed by our breath, Teems evermore with/these Our hearts discern wild images of Death, Shadows and shoals that edge eternity. Howbeit athwart Death's imminent shade doth soar One Power than flow of stream or flight of dove Sweeter to glide around, to brood above. Tell me, my heart,—what angel-greeted door Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing-floor Hath guest hope fire-fledged as thine, whose guest is Love? Part I. Youth and Change DGR's Autograph indicating his intention to place this sonnet first in the sequence Sonnet I.<lb/>Love Enthroned. I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair:— Truth, with awed lips; and Hope, with eyes upcast; And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen past To signal-fires, Oblivion's flight to scare; And Youth, with still some single golden hair Unto his shoulder clinging, since the last Embrace wherein two sweet arms held him fast; And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear. Love's throne was not with these; but far above All passionate wind of welcome and farewell He sat in breathless bowers they dream not of; Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, and Hope foretell, And Fame be for Love's sake desirable, And Youth be dear, and Life be sweet to Love. Part II of Cassandra p. 358 Note, not DGR's, on the title and placement of the sonnet in the 1881 edition. not in Note, not DGR's, at foot of manuscript; probably referring to the fact that the sonnet is not part of “The House of Life” sequence. II “O Hector, gone, gone, gone! O Hector, thee Two chariots wait, in Troy long blessed and curs'd; And Grecian sword and Phrygian sand athirst Crave from thy veins the blood of victory. Lo! long upon our hearth the brand had we, Lit for the roof-tree's ruin: and to-day The ground-stone quits the wall,—the wind hath way,— And higher and higher the wings of fire are free. O Paris, Paris! O thou burning brand, Thou beacon of the sea whence Venus rose, Lighting thy race to shipwreck! Even that hand Wherewith she took thine apple let her close Within thy curls, and while Troy's death-pyre glows Lift thee her trophy to the sea and land.” Sonnet III.<lb/>Love's Testament. O thou who at Love's hour ecstatically Unto my heart dost evermore present, Clothed with his fire, thy heart his testament; Whom I have neared and felt thy breath to be The inmost incense of his sanctuary; Who without speech hast owned him, and, intent Upon his will, thy life with mine hast blent, And murmured, “I am thine, thou'rt one with me!”— O what from thee the grace, to me the prize, And what to Love the glory,—when the whole Of the deep stair thou tread'st to the dim shoal And weary water of the place of sighs, And there dost work deliverance, as thine eyes Draw up my prisoned spirit to thy soul! Sonnet V.<lb/>Heart's Hope By what word's power, the key of paths untrod, Shall I the difficult deeps of Love explore, Till parted waves of song yield up the shore Even as that sea which Israel crossed dryshod? For lo! in some poor rhythmic period, Lady, I fain would tell how evermore Thy soul I know not from thy body, nor Thee from myself, neither our love from God. Yea, in God's name, and Love's, and thine, would I Draw from one loving heart such evidence As to all hearts all things shall signify; Tender as dawn's first hill-fire, and intense As instantaneous penetrating sense, In Spring's birth-hour, of other Springs gone by. Sonnet XII<lb/>The Lover's Walk. Sweet twining hedgeflowers wind-stirred in no wise On this June day; and hand that clings in hand:— Still glades; and meeting faces scarcely fann'd:— An osier-odoured stream that draws the skies Deep to its heart; and mirrored eyes in eyes:— Fresh hourly wonder o'er the Summer land Of light and cloud; and two souls softly spann'd With one o'erarching heaven of smiles and sighs:— Even such their path, whose bodies lean unto Each other's visible sweetness amorously,— Whose passionate hearts lean by Love's high decree Together on his heart for ever true, As the cloud-foaming firmamental blue Rest on the blue line of a foamless sea. (H of L) XIII. DGR's note Youth's Antiphony (printed) Note on received title at top of page, not by DGR see over DGR's note at the bottom of the page. <add>Love's Antiphony</add> <del>The Symphony</del> “I love you, sweet: how can you ever learn How much I love you?” “But You I love you even so, And so I learn it.” “Sweet, you cannot know How fair you are.” “If fair enough to earn Your love, so much is all my love's concern.” “My love grows hourly, sweet.” “Mine too doth grow; Yet love seemed full so many hours ago!” And here spech ends and kisses take their turn. Thus lovers speak, and kiss at every turn till kisses claim their turn. Shame soothe on his heart to whom such words as these Seem not enough of speech the whole day long, Hour after hour, not born of remote from the world's throng, Work, friendship, fame, all life's confederate pleas,— There where What while Love blends of breathes in sighs and silences Between two souls one/his Through two blent souls one rapturous undersong. The couplet here represented at the end of the text is a pair of variant and unplaced lines; DGR has written them in the left margin next to the beginning of the first stanza. Commandments Let no man ask you of anything Beyond [?] of flight of Spring Not yearborn between Spring & Spring. More of all worlds than he can know, Each day the [?] single sun doth show. A [?] tale A trustier gloss than you can tell A trustier creed than you can draw By all wise words remembered well From all wise scrolls demonstrative, From all the swords of faith & law The sea doth sigh & the wind sing. Let no lord awe you on any height Of earthly kingship's mouldering might. The dust his heel [?] bequeaths holds meet for your brow bequeaths Has all of it been what both are now, And he and you may plague together A beggar's eyes in some dusty weather When none that is now knows sound or sight. Let no priest tell you of any home Unseen above the sky's blue dome. To have played in childhood by the sea, Or to have been young in Italy, Or anywhere in the sun or rain To have loved and been beloved again, Is nearer heaven than he can come Sonnet XIV <lb/>Youth's Spring-Tribute. On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dear I lay, and spread your hair on either side, And see the newborn woodflowers bashful-eyed Look through the golden tresses here and there. On these debateable borders of the year Spring's foot half falters; scarce she yet may know The leafless blackthorn-blossom from the snow; And through her bowers the wind's way still is clear. But April's sun strikes down the glades today; So shut your eyes upturned, and feel my kiss Creep, as the Spring now thrills through every spray, Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for this Is even the hour of Love's sworn suitservice, With whom cold hearts are counted castaway. printed Beauty's Note, not by DGR, on received title. Sonnet XVII.<lb/>Love's Pageant What dawn-pulse at the heart of heaven, or last Incarnate flower of culminating day,— What marshalled marvels on the skirts of May, Or song full-quired, sweet June's encomiast; What glory of change by nature's hand amass'd Can vie with all those moods of varying grace Which o'er one loveliest woman's form and face Within this hour, within this room, have pass'd? Love's very vesture and elect disguise Was each fine movement,—wonder new-begot Of lily or swan or swan-stemmed galiot; Joy to his sight who now the sadlier sighs, Parted again; and sorrow yet for eyes Unborn, that read these words and saw her not. Sonnet XVIII<lb/>Genius in Beauty Beauty like hers is genius. Not the call Of Homer's or of Dante's soul heart sublime,— Not Michael's hand furrowing the zones of time,— Is more with compassed mysteries musical; Nay, not in Spring's or Summer's sweet footfall More gathered gifts exuberant Life bequeathes Than doth this sovereign face, whose love-spell breathes Even from its shadowed contour on the wall. As many men are poets in their youth, But for one sweet-strung soul the wires prolong Even through all change the indomitable song; So in likewise the envenomed years, whose tooth Rends shallower grace with ruin void of ruth, Upon this beauty's power shall wreak no wrong. 6 Jacobi Apparently the typesetter's name and job number Sonnet XIX.<lb/>Silent Noon. Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,— The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms 'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. 'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thr thread loosened from the sky:— So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, This close-companioned inarticulate hour When twofold silence was the song of love. Sonnet XX.<lb/>Gracious Moonlight Even as the moon grows queenlier in mid-space When the sky darkens, and her cloud-rapt car Thrills with intenser radiance from afar,— So lambent, lady, beams thy sovereign grace When the drear soul desires thee. Of that face What shall be said,—which, like a governing star, Gathers and garners from all things that are Their silent penetrative loveliness? O'er water-daisies and wild waifs of Spring, There where the iris rears its gold-crowned sheaf With flowering rush and sceptred arrow-leaf, So have I marked Queen Dian, in bright ring Of cloud above and wave below, take wing And chase night's gloom, as thou the spirit's grief. Sonnet <add>XXII</add> <del>XXXIV</del>.<lb/>Heart's Haven. Sometimes she is a child within mine arms, Cowering beneath dark wings that love must chase, With still tears showering and averted face, Inexplicably filled with faint alarms: And oft from mine own spirit's hurtling harms I crave the refuge of her deep embrace,— Against all ills the fortified strong place And sweet reserve of sovereign countercharms. And Love, our light at night and shade at noon, Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns away All shafts of shelterless tumultuous day. Like the moon's growth, his face gleams through his tune And as soft waters warble to the moon, Our answering spirits chime one roundelay. Sonnet XXVI.<lb/>Mid-Rapture. Thou lovely and beloved, thou my love; Whose kiss seems still the first; whose summoning eyes, Even now, as for our love-world's new sunrise, Shed very dawn; whose voice, attuned above All modulation of the deep-bowered dove, Is like a hand laid softly on the soul; Whose hand is like a sweet voice to control Those worn tired brows it hath the keeping of:— What word can answer to thy word,—what gaze To thine, which now absorbs within its sphere My worshipping face, till I am mirrored there Light-circled in a heaven of deep-drawn rays? What clasp, what kiss mine inmost heart can prove, O lovely and beloved, O my love? (Soul-Light) XXVII received title added in another hand beside MS title see over note (not DGR's) at lower right indicating sonnet on verso p. 190 note (not DGR's) at upper right indicating location the the sonnet in <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> (1881). Lovelight What other woman could be loved like you, Or how of you should love possess his fill? After the fulness of all rapture, still,— Even as beyond some deep-leaved noon proof avenue As at the end of some deep avenue A tender glamour of light day,—there comes to view Far in your eyes a yet more hungering thrill,— Such fire as Love's accordant soul-winnowing hands distil Even from his inmost urn/ark ark of light and dew. Such fire as love's very life distil From inmost utmost bowers of light & dew. And as the traveller triumphs with the sun, Glorying in heat's mid-height, till yet startide brings Wonder unknown, & yet fresh until new transport springs New satiate bliss Wonder new-born, and still fresh transport springs From limpid lambent hours of day begun;— Even so, still within your arms your soul doth move My soul with many changeful lights of infinite love. p. 194 note (not DGR's) at upper right indicating location the the sonnet in <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> (1881). The Lamp's Shrine XXXV title not in DGR's hand I would that I could find I could find in her/thee thee some fault, That I might love her/thee thee still in spite of it, But our Lord Love is just, nor will remit / Yet [?] we not, love never dare Yet now should our Lord Love one ray remit Aught of thy dues Of thy pure crown he whom most I would exalt? And therefore doth he/makes he now / For lo! how he hath made Alas! he can but make my heart's poor low vault Even in men's sight unworthier, being lit With thy most loving soul's pure perquisite By thy gem-cinctured heart/love love, made exquisite Of With fiery chrysoprase & bright basalt. Yet will I nowise shrink; but at Love's shrine Myself within the light beams his brow doth dart Will set the flashing jewel of thy heart In that dull chamber where it deigns to shine; Ever for more For lo! in honour of thine excellencies, Proud of My heart takes pride to show how vile poor it is. Sonnet XXX.<lb/>Last Fire Love, through your spirit and mine what summer eve Now glows with glory of all things possess'd, Since this day's sun of rapture filled the west And the light sweetened as the fire took leave? Awhile now softlier let your bosom heave, As in Love's harbour, even that loving breast, All care takes refuge while we sink to rest, And mutual dreams the bygone bliss retrieve. Many the days that Winter keeps in store, Sunless throughout, or whose brief sun-glimpses Scarce shed the heaped snow through the naked trees. This day at least was Summer's paramour, Sun-coloured to the imperishable core With sweet well-being of love and full heart's ease. (printed Equal Troth) received title added in another hand beside MS title 8 Shannon Apparently the typesetter's name Sonnet <del>XXIX</del> <add>XXXII</add> <lb/>Love-Measure Not by one measure mayst thou mete our love; For how should I be loved as I love thee?— I, graceless, joyless, lacking absolutely All gifts that with thy queenship best behove;— Thou, throned in every heart's elect alcove, And crowned with garlands culled from every tree, Which for no head but thine, by Love's decree, All beauties and all mysteries interwove. But here thine eyes and lips yield soft rebuke:— “Then only,” (sayst thou) “could I love thee less, When thou couldst doubt my love's equality.” Peace, sweet! If not to sum but worth we look,— Thy heart's transcendence, not my heart's excess,— Then more a thousandfold thou lov'st than I. XXXIV received number added in another hand beside MS title Sonnet XXXI.<lb/>The Dark Glass Not I myself know all my love for thee: How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh Tomorrow's dower by gage of yesterday? Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be As doors and windows bared to some loud sea, Lash deaf mine ears and blind my face with spray; And shall my sense pierce love,—the last relay And ultimate outpost of eternity? Lo! what am I to Love, the lord of all? One murmuring shell he gathers from the sand,— One little heart-flame sheltered in his hand. Yet through thine eyes he grants me clearest call And veriest touch of powers primordial That any hour-girt life may understand. This is an important manuscript for demonstrating how DGR manipulated his pronouns to produce a kind of “writing that has an abstract side”, as he wrote to Alice Boyd (see Fredeman, Correspondence 70.70 ). Manipulation of pronouns was one of DGR's favorite devices for creating multiple possible references (see especially lines 1-2). The revisions are mostly in pencil and these were made sometime after the draft was first composed. But two are in ink (in lines 7 and 12) and these were made when the draft was produced. All of this work must have been done in March 1870. XXXVI received number added in another hand beside MS title Life-in-Love Not in my thy body is my thy life at all But in my this lady's lips and hands and eyes; Through these she yields the life that vivifies What else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall. Life, reft of her would be but vain Look on thyself without her, & recall Of The waste remembrance & forlorn surmise As breathless living awoke as each buried day that the dead-drawn breath that sighs In the past time's impervious interval O'er vanished hours and hours eventual. Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show For hour-beats and for heart-beats long ago; Even so much life endures unseen unknown, even where, 'Mid change the changeless night environeth, Lies all that golden hair undimmed by death. <hi rend="c">Sonnet <del>L</del> <add>XLI</add> </hi>.<lb/>Through Death to Love Like labour-laden moonclouds faint to flee From winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold,— Like multiform circumfluence manifold Of night's flood-tide,—like terrors that agree Of hoarse-tongued fire and inarticulate sea,— Even such, within some glass dimmed by our breath, Our hearts discern wild images of Death, Shadows and shoals that edge eternity. Howbeit athwart Death's imminent shade doth soar One Power than flow of stream or flight of dove Sweeter to glide around, to brood above. Tell me, my heart,—what angel-greeted door Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing-floor Hath guest fire-fledged as thine, whose lord is Love? Sonnet XLIII.<lb/>Love and Hope Bless love and hope. Kiss me again. Full many a withered year Whirled past us, eddying to its chill doomsday; And clasped together where the blown leaves lay, We long have knelt and wept full many a tear. Yet lo! one hour at last, the Spring's compeer, Flutes softly to us from some green byeway: Those years, those tears are dead, but only they: Bless love and hope Kiss me again, my love; for we are here. Cling heart to heart; nor of this hour demand Whether in very truth, when we are dead, Our hearts shall wake to know Love's golden head Sole sunshine of the imperishable land; Or but discern, through night's unfeatured scope, Scorn-fired at length the illusive eyes of Hope. Sonnet LIII.<lb/>Without Her What of her glass without her? The blank grey There where the pool is blind of the moon's face. Her dress without her? The tossed empty space Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away. Her paths without her? Day's appointed sway Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place Without her? Tears, ah me! for love's good grace, And cold forgetfulness of night or day. What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart, Of thee what word remains ere speech be still? A wayfarer by barren ways and chill, Steep ways and weary, without her thou art, Where the long cloud, the long wood's counterpart, Sheds doubled darkness up the labouring hill. LIV received sonnet number added in another hand beside MS title (H of L) DGR's note indicating his intention to put the sonnet in the sequence see over note (not DGR's) at lower right indicating sonnet on verso p. 203 note (not DGR's) at upper right indicating location the the sonnet in <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> (1881). <add>Love's Fatality</add> <del>Fettered Love/ Love and Longing</del> Sweet Love,—but oh! most dread Desire of Love Life-fettered thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand, As very Love and Longing Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand: And one was eyed as the blue vault above: But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hove I' the other's gaze, even as in his whose wand Vainly all night with spell-wrought girths has spann'd The unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove. Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame, Made moan: “Alas O Love, thus leashed with me! Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free; And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame, Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name,— Life's iron heart, even Love's Fatality.” The Lamp's Shrine received title added in another hand above and to the right of mansucript title The Love-Lamp. I would that I could Sometimes I fain would find in thee some fault, That I might love thee still in spite of it: Yet how should our Lord Love one ray remit Of thy pure crown whom most he would exalt? Alas! he can but make my heart's low vault Even in men's sight unworthier, being lit By thy gem-cinctured love, made love-lamp exquisite With fiery chrysoprase and bright basalt. Yet will I nowise shrink; but at Love's shrine Myself within the beams his brow doth dart Will set the flashing jewel of thy heart In that dull chamber where it deigns to shine: For lo! in honour of thine excellencies My heart takes pride to show how poor it is. Sonnets LVI, LVII, LVIII <lb/>True Woman. I. <add>Herself</add> To be a sweetness more desired than Spring; A bodily beauty more acceptable Than the wild rose-tree's arch that crowns the fell; To be an essence more environing Than wine's drained juice; a music ravishing More than the passionate pulse of Philomel;— To be all this 'neath one soft bosom's swell That is the flower of life:—how strange a thing! How strange a thing to be what Man can know But as a sacred secret! Heaven's own screen Hides her soul's purest depth and loveliest glow; Closely withheld, as all things most unseen;— The wave-bowered pearl,—the heart-shaped seal of green That flecks the snowdrop underneath the snow. Sonnet LIX.<lb/>Love's Last Gift Love to his singer held a glistening leaf, And said: “The rose-tree and the apple-tree Have fruits to vaunt or flowers to lure the bee; And golden shafts are in the feathered sheaf Of the great harvest-marshal, the year's chief, Victorious Summer; aye, and 'neath warm sea Strange secret grasses lurk inviolably Between the filtering channels of sunk reef. All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of love To thee I gave while Spring and Summer sang; But Autumn stops to listen, with some pang From those worse things the wind is moaning of. Only this laurel dreads no winter days: Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.”

End of Part I.

 17 Jacobi Apparently the typesetter's name and job number <hi rend="u">Part II. Change and Fate.</hi> Sonnet LX.<lb/>Transfigured Life. As growth of form or momentary glance In a child's features will recall to mind The father's with the mother's face combin'd,— Sweet interchange that memories still enhance: And yet, as childhood's years and youth's advance, The gradual mouldings leave one stamp behind, Till in the blended likeness now we find A separate man's or woman's countenance:— So in the Song, the singer's Joy and Pain, Its very parents, evermore expand To bid the passion's fullgrown birth remain, By Art's transfiguring essence subtly spann'd; And from that Song-cloud shaped as a man's hand There comes the sound as of abundant rain. The <del>Man's</del> Choice 2. Watch thou and fear; to-morrow thou shalt die. Or even art thou sure thou shalt have time for death? Is not the day which His word promiseth To come man knows not when? In yonder sky, Now while we speak, the sun speeds forth: can I Or thou assure him of his goal? God's breath Perchance, even at this moment haply kindleth quickeneth The air to a flame; till spirits, always nigh Though screened and hid, shall walk the daylight here And dost thou prate of that which man shall do? Canst thou, who hast but plagues, presume to be Glad in his gladness that comes after thee? Will his strength slay thy worm in Hell? Go to: Cover thy countenance, and weep watch, and fear. The <del>Man's</del> Choice 3. Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die. Stretching thyself i' the sun upon the shore, Thou say'st: “Man's measured path is all gone o'er: Up all his years, steeply, with pant and sigh, Man clomb until he touched the truth; and I, Even I, am he whom it was destined for.” How should this be? Art thou then so much more Than they who sowed, that thou shouldst reap thereby? Nay, come up hither. From this wave-washed mound Unto the horixon-brim, look thou with me; Then reach on with thy thought till it be drowned. Miles and miles distant though the horizon be, And though thy thought sail leagues and leagues beyond,— Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea. (H of L) DGR's note indicating that the sonnet is to be included in the sequence Cloud & Wind Love, should I fear death most for you or me? Yet if you die, can I not follow you, Forcing the straits of change? Alas! but who Shall wrest a bond from night's inveteracy, Which ere/Which ere Ere yet my hazardous soul put forth, may to be Her warrant against all her haste might rue?— Ah! in your eyes so reached what dumb adieu, What breathless unsunned gyres of waste eternity/expectancy eternity? And if I die the first, shall death be then A lampless watchtower whence I see you weep?— Or (woe is me!) a bed wherein my sleep Ne'er notes —as longed-for death at last you gain (as death's dear cup at last you drain), The hour when you too find learn that all is vain And that Hope sows what Love shall never reap? Sonnet LXXX.<lb/>From Dawn to Noon As the child knows not if his mother's face Be fair; nor of his elders yet can deem What each most is; but as of hill or stream At dawn, all glimmering life surrounds his place: Who yet, tow'rd noon of his half-weary race, Pausing awhile beneath the high sun-beam And gazing steadily back,—as through a dream, In things long past new features now can trace:— Even so the thought that is at length fullgrown Turns back to note the sun-smit paths, all grey And marvellous once, where first it walked alone; And haply doubts, amid the unblenching day, Which most or least impelled its onward way,— Those unknown things or these things overknown. This is the printer's copy manuscript for theA2 Proofs, which were printed in September 1869. The alternative versions of lines 13-14 are written at the foot of the manuscript page. print this after A Dark Day page 79 DGR's note to the printer LXXXII (Hoarded Joy) received title and sonnet number, added in another hand <del>Tree & Stream/ Joy Deferred</del> <add>Joy Delayed</add> I said: “Nay, pluck not,—let the first fruit be: Even as thou sayest, it is sweet and red, Yet it shall ripen still. The tree's bent head Sees in the stream its own fecundity And bides the day of fulness. Shall not we At heat's high hour that day possess the shade, And claim our fruit before its ripeness fade, And eat it from the branch and praise the tree?” I say: “Alas! the our fruit hath wooed the sun Too long,—'tis fallen and floats adown the stream. Lo, the last clusters! Pluck them every one, And let us sup with summer; ere the gleam Of autumn set the year's pent sorrow free, And the woods wail like echoes from the sea.” ere the gleam Of autumn bid the drowsy forest dream Of the sea's sorrow and wait in unison. Sonnet LXXXV<lb/>Vain Virtues. What is the sorriest thing that enters Hell? None of the sins,—but this and that fair deed Which a soul's sin at length could supersede. These yet are virgins, whom death's timely knell Might once have sainted; whom the fiends compel Together now, in snake-bound shuddering sheaves Of anguish, while the pit's pollution leaves Their refuse maidenhood abominable. Night sucks them down, the tribute of the pit, Whose names, half entered in the book of Life, Were God's desire at noon. And as their hair And eyes sink last, the Torturer deigns no whit To gaze, but, yearning, waits his destined wife, The Sin still blithe on earth that sent them there. XCIII The Sun's Shame title and sonnet number added in another hand G D Rossetti added at upper left in another hand II. As some true chief of men, bowed down with stress Of life's disastrous eld, on blossoming youth May gaze, and murmur with self-pity and ruth,— “Might I thy fruitless treasure but possess, Such blessing of mine all coming years should bless;”— Then sends one sigh forth to the unknown goal, And bitterly feels breathe against his soul The hour swift-winged of nearer nothingness:— Even so the World's grey Soul to the green World Perchance one hour must cry: “Woe's me, for whom Inveteracy of ill portends the doom,— Whose heart's old fire in shadow of shame is furl'd: While thou even as of yore art journeying, All soulless now, yet merry with the Spring!” XCV (The Vase of Life) title and sonnet number added in another hand Run and Won Around the vase of life at your slow pace He has not crept, but turned it with his hands, And all its sides already understands. There, girt, one strives breathes alert for some great race; Whose road runs far by sands & fruitful space; Who laughs, yet through the jolly throng has pass'd; Who weeps, nor stays for weeping; who at last, A youth, stands somewhere still with silent face. And he has filled this vase with wine for blood, With blood for tears, with spice for burning vow, With watered flowers for buried love most fit; And would have cast it shattered to the flood, Yet in God's Fate's name has kept it whole; which now Stands empty till his ashes fall in it.