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Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Soothsay (Princeton early fair copy manuscript)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1871
Type of Manuscript: fair copy

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

Image of page [1] page: [1]
Manuscript Addition: (20
Editorial Description: Pagination added in upper right corner.
more about Soothsay
Commandments.
  • Let no man ask you of anything
  • Not yearborn between Spring & Spring.
  • More of all worlds than he can know
  • Each day the single sun doth show:
  • A trustier gloss than you can give
  • From all wise scrolls demonstrative,
  • The sea doth sigh and the wind sing.
  • Let no lord awe you on any height
  • Of earthly kingship's mouldering might.
  • 10The dust his heel holds meet for your brow
  • 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.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 34-1871.princems.rad.xml
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