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THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 66. THE HEART OF THE NIGHT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: FROM CHILD TO YOUTH; FROM YOUTH TO ARDUOUS
Last Line: THIS SOUL MAY SEE THY FACE, O LORD OF DEATH.

FROM child to youth; from youth to arduous man;
From lethargy to fever of the heart;
From faithful life to dream-dowered days apart;
From trust to doubt; from doubt to brink of ban;--
Thus much of change in one swift cycle ran
Till now. Alas, the soul!--how soon must she
Accept her primal immortality,--
The flesh resume its dust whence it began?

O Lord of work and peace! O Lord of life!
O Lord, the awful Lord of will! though late,
Even yet renew this soul with duteous breath:
That when the peace is garnered in from strife,
The work retrieved, the will regenerate,
This soul may see thy face, O Lord of death.



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