Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
She spoke through the still weather.
Her voice was like the voice the stars
60 Had when they sang together.3 (Ah, sweet! Even now, in that bird's song,
Strove not her accents there,
Fain to be harkened? When those bells
Possessed the midday air,
65 Strove not her steps to reach my side
Down all the echoing stair?) 'I wish that he were come to me,
For he will come,' she said.
'Have I not prayed in heaven??on earth,
70 Lord, Lord, has he not prayed?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I feel afraid? 'When round his head the aureole0 clings, halo
And he is clothed in white,
75 I'll take his hand and go with him
To the deep wells of light;
As unto a stream we will step down,
And bathe there in God's sight.
'We two will stand beside that shrine,
80 Occult,0 withheld, untrod, hidden, mysterious
Whose lamps are stirred continually
With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a little cloud.
85 'We two will lie i' the shadow of
That living mystic tree4
Within whose secret growth the Dove5
Is sometimes felt to be,
3. Job 38.7. 5. The tree of life, as described in an apocalyptic 4. A tangible manifestation of the Holy Spirit vision in the Bible (Revelation 22.2). (Mark 1.10), frequent in Christian art.
.
1446 / DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
While every leaf that His plumes touch 90
Saith His Name audibly.
'And I myself will teach to him, I myself, lying so, The songs I sing here; which his voice Shall pause in, hushed and slow, 95 And find some knowledge at each pause, Or some new thing to know.'
(Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st! Yea, one wast thou with me That once of old. But shall God lift IOO To endless unity The soul whose likeness with thy soul Was but its love for thee?)
'We two,' she said, 'will seek the groves Where the lady Mary is, 105 With her five handmaidens, whose names Are five sweet symphonies, Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, Margaret, and Rosalys.6
'Circlewise sit they, with bound locks 110 And foreheads garlanded; Into the fine cloth white like flame Weaving the golden thread, To fashion the birth-robes for them Who are just born, being dead.
115 'He shall fear, haply,? and be dumb; perhapsThen will I lay my cheek To his, and tell about our love, Not once abashed or weak; And the dear Mother will approve 120 My pride, and let me speak.
'Herself shall bring us, hand in hand, To Him round whom all souls Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads Bowed with their aureoles; 125 And angels meeting us shall sing To their citherns and citoles.7
'There will I ask of Christ the Lord Thus much for him and me? Only to live as once on earth BO With Love?only to be, As then awhile, forever now, Together, I and he.'
6. Rossetti creates this list of Mary's handmaidens ical characters. from various saints, historical figures, and allegor- 7. Guitariike instruments.
.
MY SISTER'S SLEEP / 1447
She gazed and listened and then said, Less sad of speech than mild? 135 'All this is when he comes.' She
