Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription
Document Title: Letter from William Bell Scott to unknown correspondent, August 1869
Author: William Bell Scott
Date of Composition: 1869 August
Type of Manuscript: letter
Scribe: DGR
The
full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.
page: [1]
Note: The first part of the letter is missing.
I shall enjoy Rossetti's society very
much, and already we are quite
domesticated and each pursuing his
avocations—a little idly no doubt,
but comfortably. He reading me a
sonnet now and then, I have just
thought of transcribing one for you.
It is on the other side and is
one
of two, entering & leaving church. The
2
nd you will hear
when you are
here.
I forgot my scissors, will you
bring them. On asking your mother
if she
has any message I find
she has nothing particular. She
considers our
box a small parcel,
but you will write me when you
hear definitely.
With kind remembrances
to all I am
Yours W. B. Scott
page: [1v]
- Sister, first shake we off the dust we have
- Upon our feet, lest it defile the stones
- Inscriptured, covering their sacred bones
- Who lie i' the aisles which keep the names they gave,
- Their trust abiding round them in the grave:—
- Whom painters paint with silent orisons,
- And to whom sculptors pray in stone and bronze;—
- Their voices echo still, like a spent wave.
- Without here the church bells are but a tune,
-
10And on the gothic church-door, this hot noon
- Lays all its heavy sunshine, here without.
- But having entered in, we shall find there
- Silence and lighted tapers and deep prayer,
- And faces of crowned angels all about.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1