• 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 & shower'd & flown, & Death drawn near.

• All stirs with change. Her garments beat the air:
• 10The 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.

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