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

R0SSETTIS POEMS.
POEMS BY DANTE GABRIEL RossETTI. l2mO. PIP. 2s2
Roberts Brothers.
Mr.. RoSseth has long had sort of uncertain
celebrity. The world at large knew something of
him rs a painter who seldom exhibited and poet
who seldom published The more cultivated few re-
cognized in him man of the highest gifts, who in
art had inherited the refined mysticism of the old
religious school, and in poetry endowed with
genius strangely in sympathy with his character as
painter From time to time he has given
verses to the world. His translation OF
the TitG Mora Of Dante a work of eXtraordi-
nary merit. which could only have come from the
hand of true poet but it attracted little notice
beyond a narrow circle of scholars. Now Mr.. Kos
sett has given us the flower Of twenty-three years
writing and takes rank at once among the three or
four greatest living English poets. What his precise
place in that foremost rank should be- ii is idle here
TO ask We NAV be satisfied 10 know that literature
Is enriched by poet whose genius cannot be
questioned. and with thanlfulness set our
selves to the feast he provides. His theme
is almost invariably love- and though he
is by no means lacking in passion, it is Curl
Gus to observe that in his most characteristic,
if not his strongest poetry the thought rarely takes
a sensuous direction. He calls up no visions of the
thmbed Venus and paints no pictures of intense
physical beauty such glow in the erotic pages OF
Swinburne. To Rossctt the comes rather in
such euise as she wore of old to the early Italian
painters; pure faces bright with spiritual rapture
float through his dreams; and out of the blue heay-
ems look down the souls of the loved, with
meek eyes and clasped hands, and
crowned with the glory of golden hair. The first
poem III the book gives the keynote, not of the
whole volume. for the volume embraces specimens
of four very different styles of writing but of the
one peculiar style to which these remarks of ours
Il L L. II, r1.i To-
scribe better than by calling it Pre-Raphaete po-
etry "The Blessed Damozel" was published some
years ago in periodical and has been reprinted over
and over again. Ii is now given we believe, with
many alterations The exquisite melody OF the
opening stanzas raises at once TO calm, pure at
mosphere above the range of earth.
The blessed damozcl leaned out
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
OF waters stillcd at even;
She had three lilies in her hand
And the stars la her hair were seVen
Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,
No wrought flowers did adorn,
B4 " a %n,t , rUSc eo %I taa TGyn gnu
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn
He seemed she scarce had been a day
OF Gods cnOristeTs:
IRON, nat stu iook Of hers
Albeit 10 them she left her day
Had counted as ten years.
III Is poem or love pTOlOlReu lhc siaN0, VI
sredeemed soul whom even the company of the
saints cannot satisfy while she is separated from
loved one ON earth.
1t was the rampant Of Gods house
That she standing on;
BY God built over the sheer depth
The which is space begun;
So high that looking downward thence
She scarce could see the SUM-
1t lies in Heaven, across the food
OF ether, as bridge.
Beneath the tides Of day and right
lam and darkness TidOc
Spins like fretful nudge
Heard hardly, some OF her new friends
Amid their loving games
spake evermOre among themselves
Their virginia. chaste names
And the sogis mounting up 70 Goa
Vent by her ttke htH flames.
And still she bowed herself and stopped
Until her bosom must have made
The bar she leaned on warm,
And the lilies lay as asleep
Along her Bonded arm.
From the fixed place of Heaven she
Through ali tie worlds. Her gaze still strove
Within the gulf 10 pierce
The stars sang in their spheres
The s,in ,r0s gone ROr: the ettrIed moon
was HEe a fitee feather
FIutteriHg far dorm The gulf; and now
Her voice was like the voice the stars
Had when they sang together.
IAN sweet Even now, in that birds song,
StrOye not her accents there, ~
EIn 10 be hearkcnCQ4 NHcn lHOhc JULIE
Possessed the midday air
struye not her steps to reach my side
Down all the echong stairD
"Iwish that he were come to me,
For he will COME" she said
"uayc not PRAYED in Heaven -On earth,
Lord, Lord, has he not praydf
Are NOT two prayers perfect strenghf
And shall / feel afraid
"when round his head the aureole clings
And ne is clothed in white,
IN take his hand ana 90 with him
To the deep wells Of hghti
We will step down as to a stream,
And bathe there in Gods sight.
ave two will stand beside that shrine,
Occult, withheld, uutTOd,
Whose lamps stirred continually
With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like q little cloud.
"We two viii lie the shadow of
Tint living mystic tree
within whose secret growth the Dove
L. sometimes felt u he,
While every leaf that His plumcs touch
Saith His Name audibly.
and myself will teach to him,
myself, lying 50,
1ho songs sing here; which his voice
Snail pause in hushed and slow,
And fud some knowledge at each pause,
or new thing 10 know
Alas! We two we two thou sayst!
Yea. one vast thou with me
That once Of old. But snail God lift
TO endless unity
The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but it, love for thee y
ave two" she said will seek the groves
Where the lady Mary Is,
With her five handinaidons, whose names
Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalene,
Margaret and ROsalys.
"Crclewise sit they with bound locks
And fOreheads garlauded;
Into the fine cloth white like flame
Weaving the golden thread,
To fashion the birth-rObes for them
Who are just BORN being dead