Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 51. Willowwood - 3

'O ye, all ye that walk in Willowwood,
That walk with hollow faces burning white;
What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood,
What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night,
Ere ye again, who so in vain have wooed
Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite
Your lips to that their unforgotten food,
Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light!

Alas! the bitter banks in Willowwood,
With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red:
Alas! if ever such a pillow could
Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead,
Better all life forget her than this thing,
That Willowwood should hold her wandering!'

1. On Certain Elizabethan Revivals
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 92. The Sun's Shame - 1
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 58. True Woman - 3. Her Heaven
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 81. Memorial Thresholds
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 35. The Lamp's Shrine

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