The House of Life: 22. Heart's Haven

By Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828–1882 Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Sometimes she is a child within mine arms,

Cowering beneath dark wings that love must chase,—

With still tears showering and averted face,

Inexplicably fill'd with faint alarms:

And oft from mine own spirit's hurtling harms

I crave the refuge of her deep embrace,—

Against all ills the fortified strong place

And sweet reserve of sovereign counter-charms.

And Love, our light at night and shade at noon,

Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns away

All shafts of shelterless tumultuous day.

Like the moon's growth, his face gleams through his tune;

And as soft waters warble to the moon,

Our answering spirits chime one roundelay.

Biography

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born 12 May 1828 in London, the second child and eldest son of Italian expatriates. His father, Gabriele Rossetti, was a Dante scholar, who had been exiled from Naples for writing poetry in support of the Neapolitan Constitution of 1819. Rossetti’s mother had trained as a governess and supervised her children's early education. Few Victorian families were as gifted as the Rossettis: the oldest child, . . .

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