Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 73. The Choice - 3

Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die.
Outstretch’d in the sun’s warmth upon the shore,
Thou say’st: ‘Man’s measured path is all gone o’er:
Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh,
Man clomb until he touch’d the truth; and I,
Even I, am he whom it was destined for.’
How should this be? Art thou then so much more
Than they who sow’d, that thou shouldst reap thereby?

Nay, come up hither. From this wave-wash’d mound
Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me;
Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown’d.
Miles and miles distant though the last line be,
And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,—
Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea. 

1. To Thomas Woolner
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 23. Love's Baubles
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 11. The Love-Letter
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 68. A Dark Day
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 52. Willowwood - 4

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