New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-08

OF the InOSt VI All VI
glish composition A large part of the volume con-
sists of sonnes, which with some songs it was his
original purpose to include in separate work under
the title of 1.-THE House of Life" Most of them are
upon the subject of love,-a history of the Sacred
desire from Its birth to its fuition in this life and
the perfect union of loving souls in the life TO come
The mystical beauty of The Blessed Damozel"
and The Portrait is here replaced by warmer
glow of passion and whole the sonnets remind us
strongly of Shakespeares though they are of course,
in no sense of the word limitations One specimen is
all that we can here find room for. We choose that
entitled " Love-Sweetness" not because we deem 1t
the best but because it shows more clearly than any
other we now recall phase of the authors genius
widely different from that which we have just been
viewing
Sweet dimness OF her lOoSened hairs downfall
About thy face; her sweet hands round my he"u
In aeGGs fostering Union Ser 5 gs sseG recall
OF love- her murmuring signs memorial;
Her mouths culed sweetness by thy kisses she'd
On checks and neck and eyehds, and SO led
Back to her mouth which answers there fOr all.
What sweeter than these things, except the thing
In lacking which all these would lose their sweet:
And soft subsistence of the spirits wing,
Then when ii feels, in clOndeirt wayfaring,
The breath OF kindred plmes against It's feetf
The true poet in writing of love from the physical
point of view, runs danger which the veTse-maker
escapes. The images which to the poets clear
vision are pure and beautiful, sometimes appear TO
the purbnd eyes of the average reader to be stained
with too much of the drOss of earth. Here and
there accordingly in Mr.. Rossetis House of Life"
we find a sonnet not to be read aloud i'll mixed
company; and among the more strictly medtative
poems there is one. Jenny a finished and beauti-
full piece of art, which perhaps might as well not
have been written. Yet whatever offense may be
found with the book will be only in the eyes OF
those that find it.
Passing over some fine poems which are not very
readily classifed-such as the story of Dante at
Verona 1.-THE Burden of Nineveh," and glowing
Though slightly exaggerated ave" in which the
Virgin Mary is invoked in the spirit of medieval ex
altation we come to the ballad poetry of which the
examples are abundant and most admirable. Mr..
ROesetti is fond of the old form of ballad with re-
frain, and two of his best are in that style. In
Eden Bower" he makes use Of an old Talmudical
legend which relates that Adam had a devil-wife
named Lilith, or Ills before he married Ewes
1t was Lih the wife Of Adam:
tEden bOre's in qoter)
Not a drop Of her blood was human
But she made like a soft sweet woman.
Iilith stood on the skirts Of Eden:
Chnd q ne bOtCcr and The hour y
She was the FIRST that thence driven;
With her was he'll, and with Eve was heaven.
The poet represents Llith borrowing the shape of
the serpent in order TO tempt Eve and descrhngthe
horror and sin which must come upon the earth when
her vengeance is satisfied
0 thou Snake the King-snake Of Eden
(EdeH'S bOUer's IN UO1cyJ
Gods strong will our nccks are under,
But thou and may cleave it IN sundeF
''Help, sweet Snake, sweet lover Of Iilith,
(And he bOtcer and ne hon"/
And let God learn how loved and hated
Man in the image OF God created
"Help me once against Eve and Adam!
(Edcn's bocers IN UOtccrJ
Help me for this one endeayOr,
And then my love shall he thine forever!
No scattered extracts can do Justice the intense
hatred which Kisses in every line of this fierce appeal
Ii is a hatred such as thank God the world never
saw and never can see the horrible malignity of the
demon added to the fury of jealous woman The
last three stanzas are all that we can cite:
Fold me fast O God-snake Of Eden!
(Eden bOWcr's IN HOtCcr)
What more prize than love 10 impei thee
Grip and lip my limbs a. tell thee
10! two babes for Eve and for Adam!
(And the bOUcr and The hour ,
10 sweet snake, the travail and treasure
Two men-clildren born for their pleasure
The first is Cain and the second Abel
The soul of one shall be made thy brother,
And thy tongue shall lap the blood OF the other.
(AHd tie bODer and nc hoar ~
Sister Helen" is ballad in a vein somewhat
similar to that of Eden Bower The Stafl and
Scrip and "Stratton Water" have more of the
deal of the dramatic force essential to good ballad
but there is one other poem wherein the dramatic
faculty is more perfectly developed than in anything
else Mr. Rossetti has written. This is "A Last Con-
fession" An Italian patriot, wounded to the death
in the revolution of 1915 cOnfesscs to priest how he
had murdered in a moment Of jealousy the woman
he loved
Not told you all this time what happened, Father,
And babe her Keep j iOr my SAKE that loved her,
And she had laughed Have not told You ye:
"Takeif," I said to her the second time.
"Take II and keep it," And then came fire
That burnt my hand; aud then the fire was blood,
And sea and sky blood and fire, ard all
The day was one red blinduess still il seemed
Within the whirng brains ENHANCEMENT
That she or or al things bled to death.
And knew that HAD stabbed her, and saw sl
Tie look she gave me when she took the knife
Decp in her heart, even a. babe her then,
And fell, and her stiff bodice scOOPed the sand
Into LEI bosom.
And she keeps 1t, see,
10 Won not see she keeps IL f-thcrc, beneath
Wet fingers ana wet tresscs. In her heart.
For look you, when she stir her hand, II shows
The little Hit OF horn and pearl,-eyen such
A dagger as women Of the coast
Twist in their gdrters ,,
And from her side now she unwnds The timex
Dark hair; all around her side II Il wet through,
Rut like The sand al IgO does not change
Now YOU may see the dagger clearly. Father,
have told all: tel me az once what more
Can reach me eth. For now she draws II out
Slowly, and only smiles yct look, Father,
She scarcely smiles: hut shall hear her laugh
Soon, when she shows the crimson blade 20 God.
The extracts we have given are sufficient TO show
our readers that, with great yigor of phrase and
condensation of thought, Mr.. Rossetti combines in
remarkable manner a fluent and graceful style and
a mastery of the technicalites of verse. There is
one passage indeed, lin the Aver where, IN four
successive rhymed couplets all the rhymes are i'm
perfect; but this is an exceptional bemsh, only re-
markable because il contrasts 50 strangely
with the characteristic ease and mel
IL. nf nther marta OF the volume.