Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 89. The Trees of the Garden

Ye who have passed Death's haggard hills; and ye
Whom trees that knew your sires shall cease to know
And still stand silent:--is it all a show,--
A wisp that laughs upon the wall?--decree
Of some inexorable supremacy
Which ever, as man strains his blind surmise
From depth to ominous depth, looks past his eyes,
Sphinx-faced with unabashéd augury?

Nay, rather question the Earth's self. Invoke
The storm-felled forest-trees moss-grown to-day
Whose roots are hillocks where the children play;
Or ask the silver sapling 'neath what yoke
Those stars, his spray-crown's clustering gems, shall wage
Their journey still when his boughs shrink with age.

1. To Thomas Woolner
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 68. A Dark Day
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 23. Love's Baubles
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 48. Death-in-Love
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 96. Life the Beloved

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