University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Edited with Preface and Notes by William M. Rossetti: Revised and Enlarged Edition

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand section 
expand section 
collapse section 
collapse section 
collapse sectionI. 
  
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
  
expand section 
expand section 
  
  
SIMONE DALL' ANTELLA
  
  
expand section 
expand sectionII. 
expand section 

SIMONE DALL' ANTELLA

Prolonged Sonnet

In the last Days of the Emperor Henry VII

Along the road all shapes must travel by,
How swiftly, to my thinking, now doth fare
The wanderer who built his watchtower there
Where wind is torn with wind continually!
Lo! from the world and its dull pain to fly,
Unto such pinnacle did he repair,
And of her presence was not made aware,
Whose face, that looks like Peace, is Death's own lie.
Alas, Ambition, thou his enemy,
Who lurest the poor wanderer on his way,
But never bring'st him where his rest may be,—
O leave him now, for he is gone astray
Himself out of his very self through thee,
Till now the broken stems his feet betray,
And, caught with boughs before and boughs behind,
Deep in thy tangled wood he sinks entwin'd.