Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 97. A Superscription

Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also call'd No-more, Too-late, Farewell;
Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell
Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between;
Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen
Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell
Is now a shaken shadow intolerable,
Of ultimate things unutter'd the frail screen.

Mark me, how still I am! But should there dart
One moment through thy soul the soft surprise
Of that wing'd Peace which lulls the breath of sighs,--
Then shalt thou see me smile, and turn apart
Thy visage to mine ambush at thy heart
Sleepless with cold commemorative eyes. 

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 70. The Hill Summit
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 66. The Heart of the Night
3. On Certain Elizabethan Revivals
4. Penumbra
5. At Issue

Print

1390 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version