Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/214

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
186
REST—THE CONVENT THRESHOLD.
REST.
SONNET.

O EARTH, lie heavily upon her eyes;
Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth;
Lie close around her leave no room for mirth
With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs.
She hath no questions, she hath no replies,
Hushed in and curtained with a blessed dearth
Of all that irked her from the hour of birth;
With stillness that is almost Paradise.
Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,
Silence more musical than any song;
Even her very heart has ceased to stir:
Until the morning of Eternity
Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be;
And when she wakes she will not think it long.


THE CONVENT THRESHOLD.
THERE'S blood between us, love, my love,
A There's father's blood, there's brother's blood
And blood's a bar I cannot pass:
I choose the stairs that mount above,
Stair after golden skyward stair,
To city and to sea of glass.