Sonnet LXXXI: Memorial Thresholds

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)



What place so strange,—though unrevealèd snow
With unimaginable fires arise
At the earth's end,—what passion of surprise
Like frost-bound fire-girt scenes of long ago?
Lo! this is none but I this hour; and lo!
This is the very place which to mine eyes
Those mortal hours in vain immortalize,
'Mid hurrying crowds, with what alone I know.
City, of thine a single simple door,
By some new Power reduplicate, must be
Even yet my life-porch in eternity,
Even with one presence filled, as once of yore:
Or mocking winds whirl round a chaff-strown floor
Thee and thy years and these my words and me.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
84

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDDCCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 593
Words 108
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. more…

All Dante Gabriel Rossetti poems | Dante Gabriel Rossetti Books

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