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DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-1882)

THE BLESSED DAMOZEL

The blessed damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,

And the stars in her hair were seven.

Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,
No wrought flowers did adorn,
But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For service meetly worn;
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn.

Herseemed she scarce had been a day
One of God's choristers;
The wonder was not yet quite gone
From that still look of hers;
Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten years.

(To one, it is ten years of years.
Yet now, and in this place,

Surely she leaned o'er me-her hair
Fell all about my face. . . .
Nothing: the autumn-fall of leaves.
The whole year sets apace.)

It was the rampart of God's house
That she was standing on;

By God built over the sheer depth
The which is Space begun;

So high, that looking downward thence
She scarce could see the sun.

It lies in Heaven, across the flood
Of ether, as a bridge.

Beneath, the tides of day and night
With flame and darkness ridge
The void, as low as where this earth
Spins like a fretful midge.

Around her, lovers, newly met

'Mid deathless love's acclaims, Spoke evermore among themselves Their heart-remembered names; And the souls mounting up to God Went by her like thin flames.

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Little brother?"

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(O Mother, Mary Mother, 195

(OMother, Mary Mother, Alas, alas, between Hell and Heaven!)

No, never joined, between Hell and Heaven!)

"He yields you these and craves full fain, Sister Helen, 156

"He cries to you, kneeling in the road, Sister Helen,

To go with him for the love of God!"

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"Blest hour of my power and her despair, His dying knell, between Hell and Heaven!) Little brother!" 215

(O Mother, Mary Mother,

"Alas! but I fear the heavy sound,

Sister Helen;

Is it in the sky or in the ground?" 255

Hour blest and banned, between Hell and Heaven!) “Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did "Say, have they turned their horses round, glow,

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Little brother?"
(O Mother, Mary Mother,
What would she more, between Hell and
Heaven?)

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