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University of Virginia Library

Sonnets

By Emily Pfeiffer: Revised and Enlarged Ed.

Pfeiffer, Emily (1827-1890)

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DEDICATION TO J. E. P.

ENVOY TO C. R. AND M. L.

THE PALMER LOVE.

LEARN OF THE DOG.

THE LOST LIGHT.

A REMINISCENCE.

THE JOY OF JOYS.

THE SORROW OF SORROWS.

TO THE MOURNERS OF LOVE.

WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT.

A WIND FROM OFF THE SEA.

PAST AND FUTURE.

TO THE BLIND ARCHITECT OF THE CITY OF LIFE

TO A MOTH THAT DRINKETH OF THE RIPE OCTOBER.

THE WINGED SOUL.

THE GOSPEL OF DREAD TIDINGS.

ON HEARING THE INTRODUCTION TO “LOHENGRIN.”

THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT.

THE “STING OF DEATH.”

TO L. C. SMITH.

AMONG THE GLACIERS.

ON THE THUNER SEE.

THE HUNGER OF LIFE.

LOVE AND SORROW.

THE PRISONER IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE.

ON LOCH KATRINE.

AMONG THE HEBRIDES.

TO THE HERALD HONEYSUCKLE.

TO IMMORTAL MUSIC.

TRANSFIGURATION.

TO THE FRIENDS OF LOVE.

STUDIES FROM THE ANTIQUE.

TO DR. WILHELM JORDAN.

TO E. BURNE JONES, ON HIS PICTURE OF THE ANNUNCIATION.

SUGGESTED BY THE PICTURE OF THE ANNUNCIATION, BY E. BURNE JONES.

KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR MAID.

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I.

I.LOVE AND DEATH.

II.

II.LOVE AND LIFE.

BEATING THE AIR.

THE COMING DAY.

SIX 14-LINE POEMS.

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85

III.CAIN REPENTANT.

[_]

(See the Picture now at the Royal Academy, 1886.)

BLACK to the heart and calcined to the bone
With love that desolates and fills no sphere,
The barren love that holds the sole self dear,
Which makes the hell wherein it reigns alone;
So wanders Cain till self to self is grown,
A spectre which, in flying, he falls sheer—
Bowed to God's all-consuming breath—a mere
Dumb sacrifice on Abel's altar-stone.

Then lo, the cloud that darkened all his day
And hid the watchful angel of God's love,
The angel's stormy hand has rent away;
Pure light of life beats on him from above,
Cool tears of dawn make soft his hardened clay,
And heal the frienzied heart God's lightnings rove.