Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Sudden Light

I have been here before,
   But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
   The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before, -
   How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
   Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall, - I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
   And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our loves restore
   In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 35. The Lamp's Shrine
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 74. Old and New Art - 1. St. Luke the Painter
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 23. Love's Baubles
4. Last Sonnets at Paris
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 3. Love's Testament

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