Pictures & poems/Fiammetta

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Fiammetta

FIAMMETTA

BEHOLD Fiammetta, shown in Vision here.

Gloom-girt 'mid Spring-flushed apple-growth she stands;

And as she sways the branches with her hands,

Along her arm the sundered bloom falls sheer,

In separate petals shed, each like a tear;

While from the quivering bough the bird expands

His wings. And lo! thy spirit understands

Life shaken and shower'd and flown, and Death drawn near.

All stirs with change. Her garments beat the air:

The angel circling round her aureole

Shimmers in flight against the tree's grey bole:

While she, with reassuring eyes most fair,

A presage and a promise stands; as 'twere

On Death's dark storm the rainbow of the Soul.