| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Soul’s Beauty | | By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | | UNDER the arch of Life, where love and death, | |
| Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw | |
| Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe, | |
| I drew it in as simply as my breath. | |
| Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath, | 5 |
| The sky and sea bend on thee,—which can draw, | |
| By sea or sky or woman, to one law, | |
| The allotted bondman of her palm and wreath. | |
| |
| This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise | |
| Thy voice and hand shake still,—long known to thee | 10 |
| By flying hair and fluttering hem,—the beat | |
| Following her daily of thy heart and feet, | |
| How passionately and irretrievably, | |
| In what fond flight, how many ways and days! | | | | |
|
|
