Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828–82

From “The House of Life: a Sonnet-Sequence.” IV. The Dark Glass

RossetDG

NOT I myself know all my love for thee:

How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh

To-morrow’s dower by gage of yesterday?

Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be

As doors and windows bar’d 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 shelter’d 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.