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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LATER LIFE: A DOUBLE SONNET OF SONNETS, 21 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: A HOST OF THINGS I TAKE ON TRUST: I TAKE
Last Line: FOR JUNE THAT NIGHT GLOWED LIKE A DOUBLED JUNE.

A host of things I take on trust: I take
The nightingales on trust, for few and far
Between those actual summer moments are
When I have heard what melody they make.
So chanced it once at Como on the Lake:
But all things, then, waxed musical; each star
Sang on its course, each breeze sang on its car,
All harmonies sang to senses wide awake.
All things in tune, myself not out of tune,
Those nightingales were nightingales indeed:
Yet truly an owl had satisfied my need,
And wrought a rapture underneath that moon,
Or simple sparrow chirping from a reed;
For June that night glowed like a doubled June.



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