16 Cheyne Walk

Saturday

Mr Strangeways Yours

D. G. Rossetti        

(Contents)
• 1 The Blessed Damozel
• 2 Nocturn
• Sister Helen
• 3 The Burden of Nineveh
• Added TextAve
• 4 The Staff & Scrip
• 5 Sister Helen
• 6 Stratton Water
• 7 Dennis Shand
• 8 The Song of the Bower
• 9 Sudden Light
• 10 A New Year's Burden
• The Song of the Bower
• 11 A Little While
• 12 The Moon-Star
• Penumbra
• 13 A Song & Music
• 14 Sea Limit
• 15 The Honeysuckle
• 16 The Woodspurge
• 17 A Young Fir-Wood
• 18 Penumbra
• 19 First Love
• 20 Love Lily
• 21 Even So
• 22 To Mary in Summer
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• 23 Aspecta Medusa
• 24 An Old Song Ended
• 25 Madonna Consolata
• John of Tours
• 26 Ballad of Dead Ladies
• 27 To Death, of his Lady
• 28 John of Tours
• 29 My Father's Close
• 30 One Girl

 

Sonnets
• 1 Our Lady of the Rocks
• 2 A Venetian Pastoral
• 3 A Dance
• 4 Ruggiero and Angelica 1
• 5 D ^o 2
• 6 Mary's Girlhood
• 7 Venus Verticordia
• 8 Lilith
• 9 Sibylla Palmifera
• 10 Pandora
• 11 The Bullfinch
• 12 The Hill Summit
• 13 On the Vita Nuova
• 14 On a Mulberry Tree
• 15 On Refusal of Aid
• 16 After the French Liberation

   

• The sea is in its listless chime:
• Time's self it is made audible,—
• The murmur of the earth's own shell.
• Secret continuance sublime
• Ends it to sight; the sense may pass
• No furlong further. Since Time was,
• This sound hath told the lapse of Time.

• No stagnance that death wins: it hath
• The mournfulness of ancient life,
• 10 Enduring always at dull strife.
• As the world's heart of rest and wrath,
• Its painful pulse is in the sands.
• Last utterly, the whole sky stands,
• Grey and not known, along its path.

---

  D G Rossetti

16 Cheyne Walk

Chelsea    

• Mother of the Fair Delight,
• Thou handmaid perfect in God's sight,
• Now sitting fourth beside the Three,
• Thyself a woman-Trinity,
• Being a daughter borne to God,
• Mother of Christ from stall to rood,
• And wife unto the Holy Ghost:—
• Oh when our need is uttermost,
• Think that to such as death may strike
• 10Thou wert a hast been sister sisterlike!—
• [?]Thou headstone of humanity,
• Groundstone of the great Mystery,
• Fashioned like us, yet more than we!

• Mind'st thou not (when June's heavy breath
• Warmed the long days in Nazareth,)
• That eve thou didst go forth to give
• Thy flowers some drink that they might live
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Note: This is DGR's note to the poem.
Transcribed Footnote (page [1v/8v]):

* This hymn was written as a prologue

to a series of designs. Art still

identifies herself with classic

faiths for her own purposes: and

the emotional influence here

employed demands above all

an inner standing-point.

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• One faint night more among[?] amid the sands?
• Far off the trees were as pale wands
• 20Against the fervid sky: the sea
• Behind reached on eternally
• Like an old music soothing sleep.
• Then gloried thy deep eyes, and deep
• Within thine heart the song waxed loud:
• It was to thee as though the cloud
• Which shuts the inner shrine from view
• Were molten and thy God burned through:
• Until a folding sense, like prayer
• Which is, as God is, everywhere,
• 30Gathered about thee; and a voice
• Spake to thee without any noise,
• Being of the silence:—“Hail,” it said,
• “Thou that art highly favourèd;
• The Lord is with thee here and now.
• Blessed among all women thou.”

• Ah! knew'st thou of the end, when first
• That Babe was on thy bosom nurs'd?—
• Or when he tottered round thy knee
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• Did thy great sorrow dawn on thee?—
• 40And through his boyhood, year by year
• Eating with him the Passover,
• Did'st thou discern confusedly
• That holier sacrament, when he,
• The bitter cup about to quaff,
• Should break the bread and eat thereof?—
• Or came not yet the knowledge, even
• When Till on some day forecast in Heaven,
• His feet passed through thy door to press
• Upon his Father's business?—
• 50Or still was God's high secret kept?
• Nay, but I think the whisper crept
• Like growth through childhood. Work & play,
• Things common to the course of day,
• Awed thee with meanings unfulfill'd;
• And all through girlhood, something still'd
• Thy senses like the birth of light,
• When thou hast trimmed thy lamp at night
• Or washed thy garments in the stream;
• For to thy bed had come the dream
• 60That He was thine and thou wast His
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Editorial Description: Compositor's name
• Who feeds among the field-lilies.
• O solemn shadow of the end
• In that wise spirit long contain'd!
• O awful end! and those unsaid
• Long years when It was Finishèd!

• Mind'st thou not (when the twilight gone
• Left darkness in the house of John,)
• Between the naked window-bars
• That spacious vigil of the stars?—
• 70For thou, a watcher even as they,
• Would'st rise from where throughout the day
• Thou wroughtest raiment for His poor;
• And, finding the fixed terms endure
• Of day and night which never brought
• Sounds of His coming chariot,
• Would'st lift through cloud-waste unexplor'd
• Those eyes which said, “How long, O Lord?”
• Then that disciple whom He loved,
• Well heeding, haply would be moved
• 80To ask thy blessing in his name;
• And thy thought and his thought, the same
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Editorial Description: Compositor's name
• Though silent, then would clasp ye round
• To weep together,—tears long bound,
• Sick tears of patience, dumb and slow.
• Yet, “Surely I come quickly,”—so
• He said, from life and death gone home.
• Amen; even so, Lord Jesus, come!

• But oh! what human tongue can speak
• That day when death at last might was sent to break
• 90From the tired spirit, like a veil,
• Its covenant with Gabriel
• Endured at length unto the end?
• What human thought can apprehend
• That mystery of motherhood
• When thy Beloved at length renew'd
• The sweet communion severèd,—
• His left hand underneath thine head
• And His right hand embracing thee?—
• Lo! He was thine, and this is He!

• 100Soul, is it Faith, or Love, or Hope,
• Now lets me see her standing up
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• Where the light of the Throne is bright?
• Unto the left, unto the right,
• The cherubim, arrayed, conjoint,
• Float inward to a golden point,
• And from between the seraphim
• The glory issues like a hymn.
• O Mary Mother, be not loth
• To listen,—thou whom the stars clothe,—
• 110Who seest and may'st not be seen!
• Help us a little, Mary Queen!
• Into our shadow lean thy face,
• Bowing thee from the secret place,
• O Mary Virgin, full of grace!

---

   

• “O have you seen the Stratton flood
• That's long great with rain to-day?
• It runs beneath your wall, Lord Sands,
• Full of the new-mown hay.

• “I led your hounds to Hutton bank
• To swim bathe at early morn:
• They got their bath by Borrowbrake
• Above the standing corn.”

• Lord Sands has climbed the castle stair,
  Added TextOut from the castle-stair Lord Sands
• 10 And searched Looked up the western lea;
• The crow rook was grieving on her nest,
• The flood was round her tree.

• Lord Sands has climbed the castle wall,
  Added TextOver the castle-wall Lord Sands
• Looked down the eastern hill:
• The stakes swim swam free among the boats,
• The flood is was rising still.

• “ And What thing is that yon that shines so white
• Against the hither slope?”
• “O it's a sail o' your bonny barks
• 20 The waters have thrown washed up.”

• “But I've no sails so white as yon
• And the water's not yet there.”
• “O it's the swans o' your bonny lake
• That needs the flood must scare.”
  Added TextThe rising flood doth scare.”

• “The swans they would not hold so still,
• So high they would not win.”
• “O it's Joyce my wife has spread her smock
• And fears to fetch it in.”

• “Nay, knave, it's neither sail s nor swans,
• 30 Or much mine eyes deceive
  Added TextNor aught that you can say;
• And For though your wife might leave her smock,
• Herself she'd never leave bring away .”

• Lord Sands has passed the turret-stair,
• The court & yard and all;
• The kine were in the byre that day,
• The nags were in the stall.

• “O many's the sweet word of love
• You've spoken oft to me;
• But all that I have from you to-day
• Is the rain on my body.

• “And many are the gifts of love
• You've promised oft to me;
• But the gift of yours I keep to-day
• 50 Is the babe in my body. ”

• He turned held her face between his hands,
• Her hands in his again:
• O her wet cheeks were hot with tears,
• Her wet hands cold with rain.

• “Now hold keep you well, my brother Hugh,
• 60 That told me she was dead!
• As wan as your towers look be to-day,
• To-morrow they'll be red.

• “Look down, look down, my false mother,
• That bade me not to grieve:
• You'll look up when our marriage fires
• Are lit to-morrow eve.

• “O more than one and more than two
• The sorrow of this shall see:
• But it's to-morrow, love, for them,—
• 70 To-day's for thee and me.”

• He's drawn her face into his hands unto his own
• And her sad pale mouth to his:
• No bird that was so still that day
• Chirps sweeter than his kiss.

• He's ta'en her by the short girdle
• And by the dripping sleeve,
• “Go fetch Sir Jock my mother's priest,—
• You'll ask of him no leave.

• “The flood's in the kirkyard, Lord Sands,
• And round the high kirk stair belfry-stair.”
• All round the tombstones there
• And round the graves doth [?]
• “I bade ye fetch the priest,” he said,
• “Myself shall bring him there.”

• “And for the merry lilt of wedding bells
• We'll have the rain to pour,
• And for the clink of bridle-reins
• 90 The plashing of the oar.”

• Beneath them on the nether hill
• A boat was floating wide:
• Lord Sands has swam out & caught the oars
• And backed to the hill-side.

• He's wrapped her in a green mantle
• And set her softly in;
• And “Oh!” (she said) “lie still, my babe,
• It's out you must not win!”
• But woful woe was with the bonny priest,
• 100 For the water splashed his chin.

• The first strokes that the oars struck
• Were over the broad leas;
• The next strokes that the oars struck,
• They pushed beneath the trees;

• The last stroke that the oars struck,
• The good boat's head was met,
• And there the door of the kirkyard
• Stood like a ferry-gate.

• He's set his hand upon the bar
• 110 And lightly leaped within:
• He's lifted her to his left shoulder,
• Her knees beside his chin.

• The flood was on the graves knee-deep,
• Under the rain alone;
  Added TextAs still the rain came down;
• And when the foot-stone made him slip,
• He held by the head-stone.

• The empty boat thrawed i' the wind,
• Against the postern tied.
• “Hold still, you've brought my love with me,
• 120 You shall take back my bride.”

• And “Oh!” (she said) “on men's shoulders
• I well had thought to wend,
• And well to travel with a priest,
• But not to have cared or kenn'd.

• “And oh!” (she said,) it's well this way
• That I thought to have fared,—
• Not to have lighted at the kirk
• But stopped in the kirkyard.

• “For it's Oh and Oh I prayed to God,
• 130 Who knows my sorrow and sin,
  Added TextWhose rest I hoped to win,
• That when to-night at your board-head
• You'd have bid the feast begin,
• This water past your window-sill
• Might bear my body in.”

• Now make the white bed warm & soft
• And meet/bid [?] greet the merry morn.
• To The night the mother should have died
• The young son shall be born.

 Monday [16 August 1869] D. G. Rossetti

16 Cheyne Walk    

• What shall be said of this embattled day
• And armed occupation of this night
• By all thy foes beleaguered,—now when sight
• No r w sound denotes the loved one far away?
• Of thy deserted life the live hours of death what shalt thou say,—
• As every sense to which she dealt delight
• Now labours daily lonely o'er the stark noon-height
• To find reach the sunset's desolate disarray?

• Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's art
• 10 Parades the Past before thy face, and lures
• Thy spirit to her passionate portraitures:
• Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apart
• Flood with wild will the hollows of thy heart,
• And thy feet stir not heart rends thee , and thy body endures.

---

   

• This sunlight shames November where he grieves
• In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun
• The day, though bough with bough be over-run:
• But with a blessing every glade receives
• High salutation; while from hillock-eaves
• The deer gaze calling, dappled white and dun,
• As if, being foresters of old, the sun
• Had marked them with the shade of forest-leaves.

• Here dawn to-day unveiled her magic glass,
• 10 Here noon that gave now gives the thirst and dries takes the dew
• Till eve yield bring rest when other good things pass.
• And here the lost hours the lost hours renew
• While I still lead my shadow o'er the grass,
• Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.

   

• Weary already, weary miles to-night
• I walked for bed: and so, to get some ease,
• I dogged the flying moon with similes.
• And like a wisp she doubled on my sight
• In ponds; and caught in tree-tops like a kite;
• And in a globe of film all vapourish
• Swam full-faced like a silly silver fish;—
• Last like a bubble shot the welkin's height
• Where my road turned, and got behind me, and sent
• 10 My wizened shadow craning round at me,
• And jeered, “So, step the measure,—one two three!”
• And if I faced on her, looked innocent.
• But just at parting, halfway down a dell,
• She kissed me for goodnight. So you'll not tell.

   

• Helen knelt at Venus' shrine,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Saying, “A little gift is mine,
• A little gift for a heart's desire.
• Hear me speak and make me a sign!
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “Look, I bring thee a carven cup;
• ( O Troy Town!)
• 10See it here as I hold it up,—
• Shaped it is to the heart's desire,
• Fit to fill when the gods would sup.
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “It was moulded like my breast;
• ( O Troy Town!)
• He that sees it may not rest,
• Rest at all for his heart's desire,
• O give ear to my heart's request!
• 20 ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “See my breast, how like it is;
• ( O Troy Town!)
• See it bare for the air to kiss!
• Is the cup to thy heart's desire?
• O for the breast, O make it his!
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “Yea, for my bosom here I sue;
• 30 ( O Troy Town!)
• Thou must give it where 'tis due,
• Give it there to the heart's desire.
• Whom do I give my bosom to?
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “Each twin breast is an apple sweet!
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Once an apple stirred the beat
• Of thy heart with the heart's desire.
• 40Say, who brought it then to thy feet?
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• “They that claimed it then were three:
• ( O Troy Town!)
• For thy sake two hearts did he
• Make forlorn of the heart's desire.
• Do for him as he did for thee!
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• 50“Mine are apples grown to the south,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Grown to taste in the days of drouth,
• Taste and waste to the heart's desire:
• Mine are apples meet for his mouth!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Venus looked on Helen's gift,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Looked and smiled with subtle drift,
• 60Saw the work of her heart's desire:—
• “There thou kneel'st for Love to lift!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Venus looked in Helen's face,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Knew far off an hour and place,
• And fire lit from the heart's desire;
• Laughed and said, “Thy gift hath grace!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• 70 Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Cupid looked on Helen's breast,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Saw the aching heart its guest,
• Saw the flame of the heart's desire:
• There his arrow stood confess'd.
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Cupid took another dart,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• 80Fledged it for another heart,
• Winged the shaft with the heart's desire,
• Drew the string and said, “Depart!”
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Paris turned upon his bed,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Turned upon his bed and said,
• Dead at heart with the heart's desire,—
• “O to clasp her golden head!”
• 90 ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

D. G. R.—

Penkill17 September 1869    

• Oh! how the family affections combat
• Within this heart; and each hour flings a bomb at
• My burning soul; neither from owl nor from bat
• Can peace be gained, until I clasp my Wombat.

D.G.R. Penkill. 10 ^th Sept ^r 1869    

• There's a Scotch correspondent named Scott
• Thinks a penny for postage a lot.
• Books, verses, & letters
• Too good for his betters
• Cannot screw out an answer from Scott.