Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 40. SEVERED SELVES by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: TWO SEPARATE DIVIDED SILENCES
Last Line: FAINT AS SHED FLOWERS, THE ATTENUATED DREAM.
Subject(s): ABSENCE; LOVE; SEPARATION; ISOLATION;

Two separate divided silences,
Which, brought together, would find loving voice;
Two glances which together would rejoice
In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees;
Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease;
Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame,
Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same;
Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas:--

Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecast
Indeed one hour again, when on this stream
Of darkened love once more the light shall gleam?--
An hour how slow to come, how quickly past,--
Which blooms and fades, and only leaves at last
Faint as shed flowers, the attenuated dream.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net