DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
'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; 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 arc stirred continually
With prayer sent up to God, And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a little cloud.
'We two will lie i' the shadow of
That living mystic tree, Within whose secret growth the Dove
Is sometimes felt to be, While every leaf that His plumes touch
Saith His Name audibly.
'And I mvsclf will teach to him,
I myself, lying so, The songs I sing here , which his voice
Shall pause in, hush'd 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 me That once of old. But shall God lift
To endless unity The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but its love for thee ? )
�� �
