English Edition
Literature
The House of Life
English BooksWhale Edition by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Rossetti’s sonnet sequence explores love, memory, art, loss, and the changing relationship between embodied experience and the passage of time.
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Book introduction
The House of Life
The House of Life brings together Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 103 interconnected sonnets in the two parts Youth and Change and Change and Fate. Moments of intimacy, separation, remembrance, and artistic creation return in shifting forms. The sequence moves from the intensity of personal love toward reflections on mortality and hope, retaining the concentration and musical patterning of the individual poems.
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This edition is based on a public domain text and has been prepared for digital reading by BooksWhale.
Public domain basis
Why this edition can be shared
Dante Gabriel Rossetti died in 1882. This edition uses the public-domain English original published in 1881, with later editorial notes and publisher material excluded.
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The House of Life
Preview chapterPart I. YOUTH AND CHANGEPreview
Part I. YOUTH AND CHANGE
Preview chapterINTRODUCTORY SONNETPreview
A Sonnet is a moment's monument,— Memorial from the Soul's eternity To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be, Whether for lustral rite or dire portent, Of its own arduous fulness reverent: Carve it in ivory or in ebony, As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see Its flowering crest impearled and orient.
A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul,—its converse, to what Power 'tis due:— Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath, In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death.
Table of contents
Inside this edition
- 01Full text
- 02Part I. YOUTH AND CHANGE
- 03INTRODUCTORY SONNET
- 04LOVE ENTHRONED
- 05BRIDAL BIRTH
- 06REDEMPTION
- 07LOVESIGHT
- 08HEART'S HOPE
- 09THE KISS
- 10NUPTIAL SLEEP
- 11SUPREME SURRENDER
- 12LOVE'S LOVERS
- 13PASSION AND WORSHIP
- 14THE PORTRAIT
- 15THE LOVE-LETTER
- 16THE LOVERS' WALK
- 17ANTIPHONY
- 18YOUTH'S SPRING-TRIBUTE
- 19THE BIRTH-BOND
- 20A DAY OF LOVE
- 21BEAUTY'S PAGEANT
- 22GENIUS IN BEAUTY
- 23SILENT NOON
- 24GRACIOUS MOONLIGHT
- 25LOVE-SWEETNESS
- 26HEART'S HAVEN
- 27LOVE'S BAUBLES
- 28PRIDE OF YOUTH
- 29WINGED HOURS
- 30MID-RAPTURE
- 31HEART'S COMPASS
- 32SOUL-LIGHT
- 33THE MOONSTAR
- 34LAST FIRE
- 35HER GIFTS
- 36EQUAL TROTH
- 37VENUS VICTRIX
- 38THE DARK GLASS
- 39THE LAMP'S SHRINE
- 40LIFE-IN-LOVE
- 41THE LOVE-MOON
- 42THE MORROW'S MESSAGE
- 43SLEEPLESS DREAMS
- 44SEVERED SELVES
- 45THROUGH DEATH TO LOVE
- 46HOPE OVERTAKEN
- 47LOVE AND HOPE
- 48CLOUD AND WIND
- 49SECRET PARTING
- 50PARTED LOVE
- 51BROKEN MUSIC
- 52DEATH-IN-LOVE
- 53WILLOWWOOD
- 54I
- 55II
- 56III
- 57IV
- 58WITHOUT HER
- 59LOVE'S FATALITY
- 60STILLBORN LOVE
- 61TRUE WOMAN
- 62I. HERSELF
- 63II. HER LOVE
- 64III. HER HEAVEN
- 65LOVE'S LAST GIFT
- 66PART II. CHANGE AND FATE
- 67TRANSFIGURED LIFE
- 68THE SONG-THROE
- 69THE SOUL'S SPHERE
- 70INCLUSIVENESS
- 71ARDOUR AND MEMORY
- 72KNOWN IN VAIN
- 73HEART OF THE NIGHT
- 74THE LANDMARK
- 75A DARK DAY
- 76AUTUMN IDLENESS
- 77THE HILL SUMMIT
- 78THE CHOICE
- 79I
- 80II
- 81III
- 82OLD AND NEW ART
- 83I. ST. LUKE THE PAINTER
- 84II. NOT AS THESE
- 85III. THE HUSBANDMEN
- 86SOUL'S BEAUTY
- 87BODY'S BEAUTY
- 88THE MONOCHORD
- 89FROM DAWN TO NOON
- 90MEMORIAL THRESHOLDS
- 91HOARDED JOY
- 92BARREN SPRING
- 93FAREWELL TO THE GLEN
- 94VAIN VIRTUES
- 95LOST DAYS
- 96DEATH'S SONGSTERS
- 97HERO'S LAMP
- 98THE TREES OF THE GARDEN
- 99'RETRO ME, SATHANA!'
- 100LOST ON BOTH SIDES
- 101THE SUN'S SHAME
- 102I
- 103II
- 104MICHELANGELO'S KISS
- 105THE VASE OF LIFE
- 106LIFE THE BELOVED
- 107A SUPERSCRIPTION
- 108HE AND I
- 109NEWBORN DEATH
- 110I
- 111II
- 112THE ONE HOPE
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