Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

English May

WOULD God your health were as this month of May
Should be, were this not England,—and your face
Abroad, to give the gracious sunshine grace
And laugh beneath the budding hawthorn-spray.
But here the hedgerows pine from green to grey
While yet May's lyre is tuning, and her song
Is weak in shade that should in sun be strong;
And your pulse springs not to so faint a lay.
If in my life be breath of Italy,
Would God that I might yield it all to you!
So, when such grafted warmth had burgeoned through
The languor of your Maytime's hawthorn-tree,
My spirit at rest should walk unseen and see
The garland of your beauty bloom anew. 

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 14. Youth's Spring-Tribute
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 70. The Hill Summit
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 39. Sleepless Dreams
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 99. Newborn Death - 1
5. The Staff and Scrip

Print

2723 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version