Love

Heart's Compass

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828–1882

From The House of Life

Love

Sometimes thou seem'st not as thyself alone,
But as the meaning of all things that are;
A breathless wonder, shadowing forth afar
Some heavenly solstice hushed and halcyon;
Whose unstirred lips are music's visible tone;
Whose eyes the sun-gate of the soul unbar,
Being of its furthest fires oracular;--
The evident heart of all life sown and mown.

Even such Love is; and is not thy name Love?
Yea, by thy hand the Love-god rends apart
All gathering clouds of Night's ambiguous art;
Flings them far down, and sets thine eyes above;
And simply, as some gage of flower or glove,
Stakes with a smile the world against thy heart.

MLA

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. “Heart's Compass.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_d/28/.

Chicago

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. “Heart's Compass.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_d/28/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Dante Gabriel Rossetti