| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| From “The House of Life: a Sonnet-Sequence.” IV. The Dark Glass |
| | | Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82) |
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| NOT I myself know all my love for thee: | |
| How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh | |
| To-morrow’s dower by gage of yesterday? | |
| Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be | |
| As doors and windows bar’d to some loud sea, | 5 |
| Lash deaf mine ears and blind my face with spray; | |
| And shall my sense pierce love,—the last relay | |
| And ultimate outpost of eternity? | |
| Lo! what am I to Love, the lord of all? | |
| One murmuring shell he gathers from the sand,— | 10 |
| One little heart-flame shelter’d in his hand. | |
| Yet through thine eyes he grants me clearest call | |
| And veriest touch of powers primordial | |
| That any hour-girt life may understand. | |
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