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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 99. A NEW-BORN DEATH (1) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: TODAY DEATH SEEMS TO ME AN INFANT CHILD
Last Line: AND DRINK IT IN THE HOLLOW OF THY HAND?
Subject(s): DEATH; LOVE; DEAD, THE;

TO-DAY Death seems to me an infant child
Which her worn mother Life upon my knee
Has set to grow my friend and play with me;
If haply so my heart might be beguil'd
To find no terrors in a face so mild,--
If haply so my weary heart might be
Unto the newborn milky eyes of thee,
O Death, before resentment reconcil'd.

How long, O Death? And shall thy feet depart
Still a young child's with mine, or wilt thou stand
Fullgrown the helpful daughter of my heart,
What time with thee indeed I reach the strand
Of the pale wave which knows thee what thou art,
And drink it in the hollow of thy hand?



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