48 Dante Gabriel Rossetti Quotes

Dante Gabriel Rossetti quotes

1. The blessed damozel lean'd out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters still'd at even; She had three lilies in her hand, And the stars in her hair were seven.

2. And the souls mounting up to God Went by her like thin flames.

3. From perfect grief there need not be Wisdom or even memory; One thing then learned remains to me - The woodspurge has a cup of three.

4. Tell me now in what hidden way is Lady Flora the lovely Roman? Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais, Neither of them the fairer woman? Where is Echo, beheld of no man, Only heard on river and mere- She whose beauty was more than human?- But where are the snows of yester-year?

5. I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell: I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet, keen smell, The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

6. A Sonnet is a moment's monument,- Memorial from the Soul's eternity To one dead deathless hour.

7. At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart: And as the last slow sudden drops are shed From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled, So singly flagged the pulses of each heart.

8. Beauty like hers is genius.

9. Even as the moon grows queenlier in mid-space When the sky darkens, and her cloud-rapt car Thrills with intenser radiance from afar,- So lambent, lady, beams thy sovereign grace When the drear soul desires thee.

10. And Love, our light at night and shade at noon, Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns away All shafts of shelterless tumultuous day.

11. Each hour until we meet is as a bird That wings from far his gradual way along The rustling covert of my soul.

12. Sometimes thou seem'st not as thyself alone, But as the meaning of all things that are.

13. Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell.

14. When all desire at last and all regret Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, What shall assuage the unforgotten pain And teach the unforgetful to forget?

15. Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die. Surely the earth, that's wise being very old, Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold Thy sultry hair up from my face; that I May pour for thee this golden wine, brim-high, Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold. We'll drown all hours: thy song, while hours are toll'd, Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky.

16. Now kiss, and think that there are really those, My own high-bosom'd beauty, who increase Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way! Through many years they toil; then on a day They die not, - for their life was death, - but cease; And round their narrow lips the mould falls close.

17. Watch thou and fear; to-morrow thou shalt die.

18. Now while we speak, the sun speeds forth: can I Or thou assure him of his goal? God's breath Even at this moment haply quickeneth The air to a flame; till spirits, always nigh Though screen'd and hid, shall walk the daylight here.

19. Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die Outstretch'd in the sun's warmth upon the shore, Thou say'st: 'Man's measur'd path is all gone o'er: Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh, Man clomb until he touch'd the truth; and I, Even I, am he whom it was destin'd for.' How should this be? Art thou then so much more Than they who sow'd, that thou shouldst reap thereby?

20. Nay, come up hither. From this wave-wash'd mound Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me; Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown'd. Miles and miles distant though the last line be, And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,- Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea.

21. If God in his wisdom have brought close The day when I must die, That day by water or fire or air My feet shall fall in the destined snare Wherever my road may lie.

22. Still we say as we go,- 'Strange to think by the way Whatever there is to know, That shall we know one day.'

23. Gather a shell from the strewn beach And listen at its lips: they sigh The same desire and mystery, The echo of the whole sea's speech.

24. Was it a friend or foe that spread these lies? Nay, who but infants question in such wise, 'T was one of my most intimate enemies.

25. If the light is It is because God said 'Let there be light.'

26. Thou fill'st from the winged chalice of the soul Thy lamp, O Memory, fire-winged to its goal.

1. Unto the man of yearning thought And aspiration, to do nought Is in itself almost an act.

2. Love is the last relay and ultimate outposts of eternity.

3. Give honour unto Luke Evangelist; For he it was (the aged legends say) Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray.

4. Sudden Light I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell: I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet keen smell, The sighing sound, the light around the shore.

5. Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: So this winged hour is dropt to us from above. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, This close-companioned inarticulate hour When twofold silence was the song of love.

6. I plucked a honeysuckle where The hedge on high is quick with thorn, And climbing for the prize, was torn, And fouled my feet in quag-water; And by the thorns and by the wind The blossom that I took was thinn'd, And yet I found it sweet and fair.

7. You have been mine before - How long ago I may not know: But just when at that swallow's soar, your neck turned so, Some veil did fall, - I knew it all of yore.

8. I do not see them here; but after death God knows I know the faces I shall see, Each one a murdered self, with low last breath. 'I am thyself,what hast thou done to me?' 'And Iand Ithyself,' (lo! each one saith,) 'And thou thyself to all eternity!

9. Still we say as we go,-"Strange to think by the wayWhatever there is to know,That shall we know one day.

10. This sunlight shames November where he grieves In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun The day, though bough with bough be overrun. But with a blessing every glade receives High salutation.

11. Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.

12. It is beautiful, the world, and life itself. I am glad I have lived.

13. The sea hath no king but God alone.

14. Places that are empty of you are empty of life.

15. Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

16. The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

17. Her hair that lay along her back Was yellow like ripe corn.

18. The Wombat is a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness!

19. So Spring comes merry towards me here, but earns No answering smile from me, whose life is twin'd With the dead boughs that winter still must bind, And whom today the Spring no more concerns. Behold, this crocus is a withering flame; This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom's part To breed the fruit that breeds the serpent's art. Nay, for these Spring-flowers, turn thy face from them, Nor stay till on the year's last lily-stem The white cup shrivels round the golden heart.

20. I am not as these are, the poet saithIn youth's pride, and the painter, among menAt bay, where never pencil comes nor pem

21. Love, which is quickly kindled in the gentle heart, seized this man for the fair form that was taken from me, the manner still hurts me. Love which absolves no beloved one from loving, seized me so strongly with his charm that, as thou seest, it does not leave me yet

22. “Oh how the family affections combat Within this heart, and each hour flings a bomb at My burning soul! Neither from owl nor from bat Can peace be gained until I clasp my wombat.”