Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 79. THE MONOCHORD, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Is it this sky's vast vault or ocean's sound Last Line: Upon the devious coverts of dismay? Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante Subject(s): Music & Musicians | ||||||||
IS IT this sky's vast vault or ocean's sound That is Life's self and draws my life from me, And by instinct ineffable decree Holds my breath quailing on the bitter bound? Nay, is it Life or Death, thus thunder-crown'd, That 'mid the tide of all emergency Now notes my separate wave, and to what sea Its difficult eddies labour in the ground? Oh! what is this that knows the road I came, The flame turned cloud, the cloud returned to flame, The lifted shifted steeps and all the way?-- That draws round me at last this wind-warm space, And in regenerate rapture turns my face Upon the devious coverts of dismay? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINER NOTES TO AN IMAGINARY PLAYLIST by TERRANCE HAYES VARIATIONS: 13 by CONRAD AIKEN BELIEVE, BELIEVE by BOB KAUFMAN ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN MUSIC by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES THE POWER OF MUSIC by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES FOUND' (FOR A PICTURE) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |
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