Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 87. Death's Songsters

When first that horse, within whose populous womb
The birth was death, o'ershadowed Troy with fate,
Her elders, dubious of its Grecian freight,
Brought Helen there to sing the songs of home:
She whispered, 'Friends, I am alone; come, come!'
Then, crouched within, Ulysses waxed afraid,
And on his comrades' quivering mouths he laid
His hands, and held them till the voice was dumb.

The same was he who, lashed to his own mast,
There where the sea-flowers screen the charnel-caves,
Beside the sirens' singing island pass'd,
Till sweetness failed along the inveterate waves.
Say, soul,--are songs of Death no heaven to thee,
Nor shames her lip the cheek of Victory?

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 14. Youth's Spring-Tribute
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 99. Newborn Death - 1
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 44. Cloud and Wind
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 70. The Hill Summit
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 8. Love's Lovers

Print

1172 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version