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THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 33. VENUS VICTRIX by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: COULD JUNO'S SELF MORE SOVEREIGN PRESENCE WEAR
Last Line: HERSELF, THE HELEN OF HER GUERDONING.
Subject(s): LOVE;

COULD Juno's self more sovereign presence wear
Than thou, 'mid other ladies throned in grace?--
Or Pallas, when thou bend'st with soul-stilled face
O'er poet's page gold-shadowed in thy hair?
Dost thou than Venus seem less heavenly fair
When o'er the sea of love's tumultuous trance
Hovers thy smile, and mingles with thy glance
That sweet voice like the last wave murmuring there?

Before such triune loveliness divine
Awestruck I ask, which goddess here most claims
That prize that, howsoe'er adjudged, is thine?
Then Love breathes low the sweetest of thy names;
And Venus Victrix to my heart doth bring
Herself, the Helen of her guerdoning.



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