T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Sonnet LVII. True Woman: II. Her Love
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (18281882)(From The House of Life, 1881) SHE loves him; for her infinite soul is Love, | |
And he her lodestar. Passion in her is | |
A glass facing his fire, where the bright bliss | |
Is mirrored, and the heat returned. Yet move | |
That glass, a stranger’s amorous flame to prove, | 5 |
And it shall turn, by instant contraries, | |
Ice to the moon; while her pure fire to his | |
For whom it burns, clings close i’ the heart’s alcove. | |
Lo! they are one. With wifely breast to breast | |
And circling arms, she welcomes all command | 10 |
Of love,—her soul to answering ardours fann’d: | |
Yet as morn springs or twilight sinks to rest, | |
Ah! who shall say she deems not loveliest | |
The hour of sisterly sweet hand-in-hand? | |