| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| From “The House of Life: a Sonnet-Sequence.” VI. Broken Music |
| | | Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82) |
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| THE MOTHER will not turn, who thinks she hears | |
| Her nursling’s speech first grow articulate; | |
| But breathless, with averted eyes elate | |
| She sits, with open lips and open ears, | |
| That it may call her twice. ’Mid doubts and fears | 5 |
| Thus oft my soul has hearken’d; till the song, | |
| A central moan for days, at length found tongue, | |
| And the sweet music well’d and the sweet tears. | |
| But now, whatever while the soul is fain | |
| To list that wonted murmur, as it were | 10 |
| The speech-bound sea-shell’s low, importunate strain,— | |
| No breath of song, thy voice alone is there, | |
| O bitterly belov’d! and all her gain | |
| Is but the pang of unpermitted prayer. | |
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