House of falling leaves with other poems / William Braithwaite [electronic text]

TO DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

GREETINGS, Master, take from me Where thou art, beyond, above Imminent touch of earth and sea. May thy spirit there approve This oblation of my love Unto thee, Sent from where I be and move.

How can death divide and keep — Though it conquers sight and sound — Silences so wide and deep Neither Life nor Death can bound?. In a circle winding round Wake and sleep, Souls that search and sweep are found.

I salute thee, and rejoice, Master, whom our hearts now own Thine, as the one faultless voice In the praise of Beauty blown Since Keats' lips were turned to stone, Ears from noise Of a world whose choice is known.

Unto Beauty thou didst wed Music, pure and absolute, Till men's hearts agreed and said Thou didst master Shelley's lute — Time no longer can dispute, Laurelled head, Thy long memoried repute.

Subtle shapen melodies, Thou, my Master, bidst arise, Colored as the autumn trees, Tremulous with sudden sighs, How God's magic underlies Earth and seas Secret sounds like these comprise.