Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 85. VAIN VIRTUES, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 85. VAIN VIRTUES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: What is the sorriest thing that enters hell?
Last Line: The sin still blithe on earth that sent them there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Subject(s): Melancholy; Virtue; Dejection


WHAT is the sorriest thing that enters Hell?
None of the sins,--but this and that fair deed
Which a soul's sin at length could supersede.
These yet are virgins, whom death's timely knell
Might once have sainted; whom the fiends compel
Together now, in snake-bound shuddering sheaves
Of anguish, while the pit's pollution leaves
Their refuse maidenhood abominable.

Night sucks them down, the tribute of the pit,
Whose names, half entered in the book of Life,
Were God's desire at noon. And as their hair
And eyes sink last, the Torturer deigns no whit
To gaze, but, yearning, waits his destined wife,
The Sin still blithe on earth that sent them there.





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