PROSERPINA (FOR A PICTURE)

PROSERPINA

(FOR A PICTURE)

Afar away the light that brings cold cheer

     Unto this wall, — one instant and no more

     Admitted at my distant palace-door.

Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear

Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.

     Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey

     That chills me: and afar, how far away,

The nights that shall be from the days that were.

Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing

     Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign:

     And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,

(Whose sounds mine inner sense is fain to bring,

Continually together murmuring,) —

     ‘Woe’s me for thee, unhappy Proserpine!’

Dante Gabriel Rossetti PROSERPINE Oil on canvas. 1874 Tate, London

Данте Габриэль Россетти ПРОЗЕРПИНА Холст, масло. 1874 Галерея Тейт, Лондон