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1828–1882

ARDOUR AND MEMORY

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The cuckoo-throb, the heartbeat of the Spring; The rosebud's blush that leaves it as it grows Into the full-eyed fair unblushing rose; The summer clouds that visit every wing

With fires of sunrise and of sunsetting; The furtive flickering streams to light re-born ‘ Mid airs new-fledged and valorous lusts of morn, While all the daughters of the daybreak sing:—

These ardour loves, and memory: and when flown All joys, and through dark forest-boughs in flight The wind swoops onward brandishing the light, Even yet the rose-tree's verdure left alone

Will flush all ruddy though the rose be gone; With ditties and with dirges infinite.

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ARDOUR AND MEMORY · Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Poetry Cove