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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 91. LOST ON BOTH SIDES by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: AS WHEN TWO MEN HAVE LOVED A WOMAN WELL
Last Line: ITS BYE-STREETS, KNOCKING AT THE DUSTY INNS.
Subject(s): HOPE; SUCCESS; OPTIMISM;

As WHEN two men have loved a woman well,
Each hating each, through Love's and Death's deceit;
Since not for either this stark marriage-sheet
And the long pauses of this wedding-bell;
Yet o'er her grave the night and day dispel
At last their feud forlorn, with cold and heat;
Nor other than dear friends to death may fleet
The two lives left that most of her can tell:--

So separate hopes, which in a soul had wooed
The one same Peace, strove with each other long,
And Peace before their faces perished since:
So through that soul, in restless brotherhood,
They roam together now, and wind among
Its bye-streets, knocking at the dusty inns.



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