Poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti

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            Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda. – Dante
           
            Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore,
            E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. – Petrarca

I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long,
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
I loved and guessed at you, you construed me
And loved me for what might or might not be –
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’
With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

1. A Testimony
2. Three Little Children
3. Herself A Rose Who Bore The Rose
4. Maiden May
5. I Caught a Little Ladybird

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