Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)

THERE came an image in Life’s retinue

That had Love’s wings and bore his gonfalon:

Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon,

O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue!

Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to,

Shook in its folds; and through my heart its power

Sped trackless as the immemorable hour

When birth’s dark portal groaned and all was new.

But a veiled woman followed, and she caught

The banner round its staff, to furl and cling,—

Then plucked a feather from the bearer’s wing,

And held it to his lips that stirred it not,

And said to me, ‘Behold, there is no breath:

I and this Love are one, and I am Death.’