Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Dead before Death
DEAD BEFORE DEATH.
SONNET.
AH! changed and cold, how changed and very cold! With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes: Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise; This was the promise of the days of old! Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould, Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies: We hoped for better things as years would rise, But it is over as a tale once told. All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore. All lost the present and the future time, All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before: So lost till death shut to the opened door, So lost from chime to everlasting chime, So cold and lost for ever evermore.