| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XII. Love and Death
Death-in-Love | | By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | | THERE came an image in Life’s retinue | |
| That had Love’s wings and bore his gonfalon: | |
| Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon, | |
| O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue! | |
| Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to, | 5 |
| Shook in its folds; and through my heart its power | |
| Sped trackless as the immemorable hour | |
| When birth’s dark portal groaned and all was new. | |
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| But a veiled woman followed, and she caught | |
| The banner round its staff, to furl and cling,— | 10 |
| Then plucked a feather from the bearer’s wing, | |
| And held it to his lips that stirred it not, | |
| And said to me, ‘Behold, there is no breath: | |
| I and this Love are one, and I am Death.’ | | | | |
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