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The Blessed Damozel

The blessed damozel leaned

From the gold bar of Heaven;

Her eyes were deeper than the

Of waters stilled at even;

She had three lilies in her hand,

And the stars in her hair were seven.

Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,

No wrought flowers did adorn,

But a white rose of Mary's gift,

For service meetly worn;

Her hair that lay along her

Was yellow like ripe corn.

Herseemed she scarce had been a

One of God's choristers;

The wonder was not yet quite

From that still look of hers;

Albeit, to them she left, her

Had counted as ten years.(To one, it is ten years of years.. . .

Yet now, and in this place,

Surely she leaned o'er me—her

Fell all about my face. . .

Nothing: the autumn-fall of leaves.

The whole year sets apace.)It was the rampart of God's

That she was standing on;

By God built over the sheer

The which is Space begun;

So high, that looking downward

She scarce could see the sun.

It lies in Heaven, across the

Of ether, as a bridge.

Beneath, the tides of day and

With flame and darkness

The void, as low as where this

Spins like a fretful midge.

Around her, lovers, newly met'Mid deathless love's acclaims,

Spoke evermore among

Their heart-remembered names;

And the souls mounting up to

Went by her like thin flames.

And still she bowed herself and

Out of the circling charm;

Until her bosom must have

The bar she leaned on warm,

And the lilies lay as if

Along her bended arm.

From the fixed place of Heaven she

Time like a pulse shake

Through all the worlds.

Her gaze still

Within the gulf to

Its path; and now she spoke as

The stars sang in their spheres.

The sun was gone now; the curled

Was like a little

Fluttering far down the gulf; and

She spoke through the still weather.

Her voice was like the voice of the

Had when they sang together.(Ah sweet!

Even now, in that bird's song,

Strove not her accents there,

Fain to be hearkened?

When those

Possessed the mid-day air,

Strove not her steps to reach my

Down all the echoing stair?)“I wish that he were come to me,

For he will come,” she said.“Have I not prayed in Heaven?—on earth,

Lord,

Lord, has he not pray'd?

Are not two prayers a perfect strength?

And shall I feel afraid?“When round his head the aureole clings,

And he is clothed in white,

I'll take his hand and go with

To the deep wells of light;

As unto a stream we will step down,

And bathe there in God's sight.“We two will stand beside that shrine,

Occult, withheld, untrod,

Whose lamps are stirred

With prayer sent up to God;

And see our old prayers, granted,

Each like a little cloud.“We two will lie i' the shadow

That living mystic

Within whose secret growth the

Is sometimes felt to be,

While every leaf that His plumes

Saith His Name audibly.“And I myself will teach to him,

I myself, lying so,

The songs I sing here; which his

Shall pause in, hushed and slow,

And find some knowledge at each pause,

Or some new thing to know.”(Alas!

We two, we two, thou say'st!

Yea, one wast thou with

That once of old.

But shall God

To endless

The soul whose likeness with thy

Was but its love for thee?)“We two,” she said, “will seek the

Where the lady Mary is,

With her five handmaidens, whose

Are five sweet symphonies,

Cecily,

Gertrude,

Magdalen,

Margaret and Rosalys.“Circlewise sit they, with bound

And foreheads garlanded;

Into the fine cloth white like

Weaving the golden thread,

To fashion the birth-robes for

Who are just born, being dead.“He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:

Then will I lay my

To his, and tell about our love,

Not once abashed or weak:

And the dear Mother will

My pride, and let me speak.“Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,

To Him round whom all

Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered

Bowed with their aureoles:

And angels meeting us shall

To their citherns and citoles.“There will I ask of Christ the

Thus much for him and me:—Only to live as once on

With Love,—only to be,

As then awhile, for ever

Together,

I and he.”She gazed and listened and then said,

Less sad of speech than mild,—“All this is when he comes.” She ceased.

The light thrilled towards her,

With angels in strong level flight.

Her eyes prayed, and she smil'd.(I saw her smile.) But soon their

Was vague in distant spheres:

And then she cast her arms

The golden barriers,

And laid her face between her hands,

And wept. (I heard her tears.)

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Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (/rəˈzɛti/),[1] was an English poet, illu…

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