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by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)

Willow‑wood
Language: English 
I
I sat with Love upon a woodside well,
Leaning across the water, I and he;
Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me,
But touched his lute wherein was audible
The certain secret thing he had to tell:
Only our mirrored eyes met silently
In the low wave; and that sound came to be
The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell.

And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers;
And with his foot and with his wing-feathers
He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth.
Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair,
And as I stooped, her own lips rising there
Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth.

II
And now Love sang: but his was such a song,
So meshed with half-remembrance hard to free,
As souls disused in death's sterility
May sing when the new birthday tarries long.
And I was made aware of a dumb throng
That stood aloof, one form by every tree,
All mournful forms, for each was I or she,
The shades of those our days that had no tongue.

They looked on us, and knew us and were known;
While fast together, alive from the abyss,
Clung the soul-wrung implacable close kiss;
And pity of self through all made broken moan
Which said, "For once, for once, for once alone!"
And still Love sang, and what he sang was this: -- 

III
"O ye, all ye that walk in Willow-wood,
That walk with hollow faces burning white;
What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood,
What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night,
Ere ye again, who so in vain have wooed
Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite
Your lips to that their unforgotten food,
Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light!

Alas! the bitter banks in Willowwood,
With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red:
Alas! if ever such a pillow could
Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead, -- 
Better all life forget her than this thing,
That Willowwood should hold her wandering!"

IV
So sang he: and as meeting rose and rose
Together cling through the wind's wellaway
Nor change at once, yet near the end of day
The leaves drop loosened where the heart-stain glows, -- 
So when the song died did the kiss unclose;
And her face fell back drowned, and was as grey
As its grey eyes; and if it ever may
Meet mine again I know not if Love knows.

Only I know that I leaned low and drank
A long draught from the water where she sank,
Her breath and all her tears and all her soul:
And as I leaned, I know I felt Love's face
Pressed on my neck with moan of pity and grace,
Till both our heads were in his aureole.

First published in Fortnightly Review, March 1869 as one of "Of Life, and Death: Sixteen Sonnets"


Text Authorship:

  • by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882), "Willow-Wood", appears in Poems, first published 1870 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Willow-wood", 1902-3, published 1909, rev. 1908, first performed 1903 [ baritone or mezzo-soprano and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925) ; composed by Claude Achille Debussy.
      • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Stefan George (1868 - 1933) , "Weidenwald", appears in Zeitgenössische Dichter, in England, in Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in Aus: Das Haus des Lebens ; composed by Conrad Ansorge.
      • Go to the text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-04-03
Line count: 60
Word count: 468

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