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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AT LAST by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: FATE CLAIMED HARD TOLL FROM LOVE, AND DID NOT SPARE
Last Line: "ERE YET ONE WORD GAVE LIGHT THE VICTORY."

FATE claimed hard toll from Love, and did not spare:
Are the dues paid, and is all Love's at last?
Cling round me, sacred sweetness, hold me fast;
Oh! as I kneel, enfold mine eyes even there
Within they breast; and to Love's deepest lair
Of memory bid thy soul with mine retreat,
And let our past years and our future meet
In the warm darkness underneath thine hair.

Say once for all: "Me Love accepts and thee:
Nor takes he other count of bygone years
Not his, than do the affranchised earth and sea
Of hours wherein the unyoked inordinate spheres
Hurled tumultuous round Time's ringing ears
Ere yet one Word gave light the victory."



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