Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 32. Equal Troth

Not by one measure mayst thou mete our love;
For how should I be loved as I love thee?--
I, graceless, joyless, lacking absolutely
All gifts that with thy queenship best behove;--
Thou, throned in every heart's elect alcove,
And crowned with garlands culled from every tree,
Which for no head but thine, by Love's decree,
All beauties and all mysteries interwove.

But here thine eyes and lips yield soft rebuke:--
"Then only" (say'st thou) "could I love thee less,
When thou couldst doubt my love's equality."
Peace, sweet! If not to sum but worth we look,--
Thy heart's transcendence, not my heart's excess,--
Then more a thousandfold thou lov'st than I.

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

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