"The cloud's not danced out of my brain,— / The cloud that made it turn and swim / While hour by hour the books grew dim."
— Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
F. S. Ellis
Date
April 26 1870
Metaphor
"The cloud's not danced out of my brain,— / The cloud that made it turn and swim / While hour by hour the books grew dim."
Metaphor in Context
The cloud's not danced out of my brain,—
The cloud that made it turn and swim
While hour by hour the books grew dim.
Why, Jenny, as I watch you there,—
For all your wealth of loosened hair,
Your silk ungirdled and unlac'd
And warm sweets open to the waist,
50All golden in the lamplight's gleam,—
You know not what a book you seem,
Half-read by lightning in a dream!
How should you know, my Jenny? Nay,
And I should be ashamed to say:—
Poor beauty, so well worth a kiss!
But while my thought runs on like this
With wasteful whims more than enough,
I wonder what you're thinking of.
(p. 111, ll. 43-58)
The cloud that made it turn and swim
While hour by hour the books grew dim.
Why, Jenny, as I watch you there,—
For all your wealth of loosened hair,
Your silk ungirdled and unlac'd
And warm sweets open to the waist,
50All golden in the lamplight's gleam,—
You know not what a book you seem,
Half-read by lightning in a dream!
How should you know, my Jenny? Nay,
And I should be ashamed to say:—
Poor beauty, so well worth a kiss!
But while my thought runs on like this
With wasteful whims more than enough,
I wonder what you're thinking of.
(p. 111, ll. 43-58)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Rosetti, D.G. "Jenny." Poems. London: F.S. Ellis, 1870. <Link to the Rossetti Archive>
Date of Entry
12/10/2009
