Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 60. Transfigured Life

As growth of form or momentary glance
In a child's features will recall to mind
The father's with the mother's face combin'd,--
Sweet interchange that memories still enhance:
And yet, as childhood's years and youth's advance,
The gradual mouldings leave one stamp behind,
Till in the blended likeness now we find
A separate man's or woman's countenance:--

So in the Song, the singer's Joy and Pain,
Its very parents, evermore expand
To bid the passion's fullgrown birth remain,
By Art's transfiguring essence subtly spann'd;
And from that song-cloud shaped as a man's hand
There comes the sound as of abundant rain.

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 14. Youth's Spring-Tribute
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 99. Newborn Death - 1
3. The Staff and Scrip
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 51. Willowwood - 3
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 38. The Morrow's Message

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