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

collapse sectionI. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse section 
  
collapse sectionI. 
 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VIa. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 X. 
 XI. 
 XII. 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 XVI. 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 XX. 
 XXI. 
 XXII. 
 XXIII. 
 XXIV. 
 XXV. 
 XXVI. 
 XXVII. 
 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
 XXXII. 
 XXXIII. 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXV. 
 XXXVI. 
SONNET XXXVI LIFE-IN-LOVE
 XXXVII. 
 XXXVIII. 
 XXXIX. 
 XL. 
 XLI. 
 XLII. 
 XLIII. 
 XLIV. 
 XLV. 
 XLVI. 
 XLVII. 
 XLVIII. 
expand sectionXLIX, L, LI, LII. 
 LIII. 
 LIV. 
 LV. 
expand sectionLVI, LVII, LVIII. 
 LIX. 
expand sectionII. 
  
  
expand section 
  
  
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 

SONNET XXXVI LIFE-IN-LOVE

Not in thy body is thy life at all,
But in this lady's lips and hands and eyes;
Through these she yields thee life that vivifies
What else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall.
Look on thyself without her, and recall
The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise
That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs
O'er vanished hours and hours eventual.
Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair
Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show
For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago;
Even so much life endures unknown, even where,
'Mid change the changeless night environeth,
Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.