Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 54. LOVE'S FATALITY, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 54. LOVE'S FATALITY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sweet love - but oh! Most dread desire of love
Last Line: "life's iron heart, even love's fatality."
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


SWEET Love,--but oh! most dread Desire of Love
Life-thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand,
Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand:
And one was eyed as the blue vault above:
But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hove
I' the other's gaze, even as in his whose wand
Vainly all night with spell-wrought power has spann'd
The unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove.

Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame,
Made moan: "Alas O Love, thus leashed with me!
Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free:
And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame,--
Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name,--
Life's iron heart, even Love's Fatality."





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