Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/307

So while I lay entranced a curtain seemed
 To shrivel with crackling from before my face;
Across mine eyes a waxing radiance beamed
 And showed a certain place.

I saw a vision of a woman, where
 Night and new morning strive for domination;
Incomparably' pale, and almost fair,
 And sad beyond expression.

Her eyes were like some fire-enshrining gem,
 Were stately like the stars, and yet were tender;
Her figure charmed me like a windy stem
 Quivering and drooped and slender.

I stood upon the outer barren ground,
 She stood on inner ground that budded flowers;
While circling in their never-slackening round
 Danced by the mystic hours.

But every flower was lifted on a thorn,
 And every thorn shot upright from its sands
To gall her feet; hoarse laughter pealed in scorn
 With cruel clapping hands.

She bled and wept, yet did not shrink; her strength
 Was strung up until daybreak of delight:
She measured measureless sorrow toward its length,
 And breadth, and depth, and height.