THE NEW LIFE. (LA VITA NUOVA.)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Dante Alighieri and Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Whereby my spirit wax’d so dolorous
That in myself I said, with sick recoil:
‘Yea, to my lady too this Death must come.’
And therewithal such a bewilderment
Possess’d me, that I shut mine eyes for peace;
And in my brain did cease
Order of thought, and every healthful thing.
Afterwards, wandering
Amid a swarm of doubts that came and went,
Some certain women’s faces hurried by,
And shriek’d to me, ‘Thou too shalt die, shalt die!’
“Then saw I many broken hinted sights
In the uncertain state I stepp’d into.
Meseem’d to be I know not in what place,
Where ladies through the street, like mournful lights,
Ran with loose hair, and eyes that frighten’d you
By their own terror, and a pale amaze:
The while, little by little, as I thought,
The sun ceased, and the stars began to gather,
And each wept at the other;
And birds dropp’d in mid-flight out of the sky;
And earth shook suddenly;
And I was ’ware of one, hoarse and tired out,
Who ask’d of me: ‘Hast thou not heard it said?...
Thy lady, she that was so fair, is dead.’
“Then lifting up mine eyes, as the tears came,
I saw the Angels, like a rain of manna,
In a long flight flying back Heavenward;
Having a little cloud in front of them,
After the which they went and said, ‘Hosanna;’
And if they had said more, you should have heard.
Then Love said, ‘Now shall all things be made clear:
Come and behold our lady where she lies.’
These ’wildering phantasies
Then carried me to see my lady dead.
Even as I there was led,
Her ladies with a veil were covering her;
And with her was such very humbleness
That she appeared to say, ‘I am at peace.’
“And I became so humble in my grief,