Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 36. LIFE-IN-LOVE, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 36. LIFE-IN-LOVE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not in thy body is thy life at all
Last Line: Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Subject(s): Death; Love; Dead, The


NOT in thy body is thy life at all
But in this lady's lips and hands and eyes;
Through these she yields thee life that vivifies
What else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall.

Look on thyself without her, and recall
The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise
That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs
O'er vanished hours and hours eventual.

Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair
Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show
For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago;
Even so much life endures alone, even where,
'Mid change the changeless night environeth,
Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.





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