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1828–1882

LIFE-IN-LOVE

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Not in thy body is thy life at all But in this lady's lips and hands and eyes; Through these she yields the life that vivifies What else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall.

Look on thyself without her, and recall The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs O'er vanished hours and hours eventual.

Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago; Even so much life endures unknown, even where,

‘ Mid change the changeless night environeth, Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.

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LIFE-IN-LOVE · Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Poetry Cove