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 90. «Retro Me, Sathana!»
2. Johannes Ronge
3. At Issue
4. Ashore at Dover
5. To Thomas Woolner

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