Sonnet XLIII: Love and Hope
July 5, 2023Sonnet LXXXVIII: Hero’s Lamp
July 5, 2023Sonnet XCV: The Vase of Life
Around the vase of Life at your slow pace
He has not crept, but turned it with his hands,
And all its sides already understands.
There, girt, one breathes alert for some great race;
Whose road runs far by sands and fruitful space;
Who laughs, yet through the jolly throng has pass’d;
Who weeps, nor stays for weeping; who at last,
A youth, stands somewhere crowned, with silent face.
And he has filled this vase with wine for blood,
With blood for tears, with spice for burning vow,
With watered flowers for buried love most fit;
And would have cast it shattered to the flood,
Yet in Fate’s name has kept it whole; which now
Stands empty till his ashes fall in it.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) was an English poet, painter, and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His works, such as "The Blessed Damozel" and "Sister Helen," explored themes of love, death, and the supernatural. Rossetti was also a talented artist and designed many of the Pre-Raphaelite movement's most famous works.