Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 18281882771. The Blessèd Damozel
THE blessèd Damozel lean’d out | |
From the gold bar of Heaven: | |
Her blue grave eyes were deeper much | |
Than a deep water, even. | |
She had three lilies in her hand, | 5 |
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 | |
On the neck meetly worn; | 10 |
And her hair, lying down her back, | |
Was yellow like ripe corn. | |
Herseem’d she scarce had been a day | |
One of God’s choristers; | |
The wonder was not yet quite gone | 15 |
From that still look of hers; | |
Albeit, to them she left, her day | |
Had counted as ten years. | |
(To one it is ten years of years: | |
…Yet now, here in this place, | 20 |
Surely she lean’d o’er me,—her hair | |
Fell all about my face…. | |
Nothing: the Autumn-fall of leaves. | |
The whole year sets apace.) | |
It was the terrace of God’s house | 25 |
That she was standing on,— | |
By God built over the sheer depth | |
In which Space is begun; | |
So high, that looking downward thence, | |
She scarce could see the sun. | 30 |
It lies from Heaven across the flood | |
Of ether, as a bridge. | |
Beneath, the tides of day and night | |
With flame and darkness ridge | |
The void, as low as where this earth | 35 |
Spins like a fretful midge. | |
But in those tracts, with her, it was | |
The peace of utter light | |
And silence. For no breeze may stir | |
Along the steady flight | 40 |
Of seraphim; no echo there, | |
Beyond all depth or height. | |
Heard hardly, some of her new friends, | |
Playing at holy games, | |
Spake gentle-mouth’d, among themselves, | 45 |
Their virginal chaste names; | |
And the souls, mounting up to God, | |
Went by her like thin flames. | |
And still she bow’d herself, and stoop’d | |
Into the vast waste calm; | 50 |
Till her bosom’s pressure must have made | |
The bar she lean’d on warm, | |
And the lilies lay as if asleep | |
Along her bended arm. | |
From the fixt lull of Heaven, she saw | 55 |
Time, like a pulse, shake fierce | |
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove, | |
In that steep gulf, to pierce | |
The swarm; and then she spoke, as when | |
The stars sang in their spheres. | 60 |
‘I wish that he were come to me, | |
For he will come,’ she said. | |
‘Have I not pray’d in solemn Heaven? | |
On earth, has he not pray’d? | |
Are not two prayers a perfect strength? | 65 |
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 him | |
To the deep wells of light, | 70 |
And we will step down as to a stream | |
And bathe there in God’s sight. | |
‘We two will stand beside that shrine, | |
Occult, withheld, untrod, | |
Whose lamps tremble continually | 75 |
With prayer sent up to God; | |
And where each need, reveal’d, expects | |
Its patient period. | |
‘We two will lie i’ the shadow of | |
That living mystic tree | 80 |
Within whose secret growth the Dove | |
Sometimes is felt to be, | |
While every leaf that His plumes touch | |
Saith His name audibly. | |
‘And I myself will teach to him,— | 85 |
I myself, lying so,— | |
The songs I sing here; which his mouth | |
Shall pause in, hush’d and slow, | |
Finding some knowledge at each pause, | |
And some new thing to know.’ | 90 |
(Alas! to her wise simple mind | |
These things were all but known | |
Before: they trembled on her sense,— | |
Her voice had caught their tone. | |
Alas for lonely Heaven! Alas | 95 |
For life wrung out alone! | |
Alas, and though the end were reach’d?… | |
Was thy part understood | |
Or borne in trust? And for her sake | |
Shall this too be found good?— | 100 |
May the close lips that knew not prayer | |
Praise ever, though they would?) | |
‘We two,’ she said, ‘will seek the groves | |
Where the lady Mary is, | |
With her five handmaidens, whose names | 105 |
Are five sweet symphonies:— | |
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, | |
Margaret and Rosalys. | |
‘Circle-wise sit they, with bound locks | |
And bosoms coverèd; | 110 |
Into the fine cloth, white like flame, | |
Weaving the golden thread, | |
To fashion the birth-robes for them | |
Who are just born, being dead. | |
‘He shall fear, haply, and be dumb. | 115 |
Then I will lay my cheek | |
To his, and tell about our love, | |
Not once abash’d or weak: | |
And the dear Mother will approve | |
My pride, and let me speak. | 120 |
‘Herself shall bring us, hand in hand, | |
To Him round whom all souls | |
Kneel—the unnumber’d solemn heads | |
Bow’d with their aureoles: | |
And Angels, meeting us, shall sing | 125 |
To their citherns and citoles. | |
‘There will I ask of Christ the Lord | |
Thus much for him and me:— | |
To have more blessing than on earth | |
In nowise; but to be | 130 |
As then we were,—being as then | |
At peace. Yea, verily. | |
‘Yea, verily; when he is come | |
We will do thus and thus: | |
Till this my vigil seem quite strange | 135 |
And almost fabulous; | |
We two will live at once, one life; | |
And peace shall be with us.’ | |
She gazed, and listen’d, and then said, | |
Less sad of speech than mild,— | 140 |
‘All this is when he comes.’ She ceased: | |
The light thrill’d past her, fill’d | |
With Angels, in strong level lapse. | |
Her eyes pray’d, and she smiled. | |
(I saw her smile.) But soon their flight | 145 |
Was vague ‘mid the poised spheres. | |
And then she cast her arms along | |
The golden barriers, | |
And laid her face between her hands, | |
And wept. (I heard her tears.) | 150 |