"Like a rose shut in a book / In which pure women may not look, / For its base pages claim control / To crush the flower within the soul."
— Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
F. S. Ellis
Date
April 26 1870
Metaphor
"Like a rose shut in a book / In which pure women may not look, / For its base pages claim control / To crush the flower within the soul."
Metaphor in Context
Like a rose shut in a book
In which pure women may not look,
For its base pages claim control
To crush the flower within the soul;
Where through each dead rose-leaf that clings, Pale as transparent psyche-wings,
To the vile text, are traced such things
As might make lady's cheek indeed
More than a living rose to read;
So nought save foolish foulness may
Watch with hard eyes the sure decay;
And so the life-blood of this rose,
Puddled with shameful knowledge, flows
Through leaves no chaste hand may unclose:
Yet still it keeps such faded show
Of when 'twas gathered long ago,
That the crushed petals' lovely grain,
The sweetness of the sanguine stain,
Seen of a woman's eyes, must make
Her pitiful heart, so prone to ache,
Love roses better for its sake:—
Only that this can never be:—
Even so unto her sex is she.
(pp. 120-121, ll. 253-275)
In which pure women may not look,
For its base pages claim control
To crush the flower within the soul;
Where through each dead rose-leaf that clings, Pale as transparent psyche-wings,
To the vile text, are traced such things
As might make lady's cheek indeed
More than a living rose to read;
So nought save foolish foulness may
Watch with hard eyes the sure decay;
And so the life-blood of this rose,
Puddled with shameful knowledge, flows
Through leaves no chaste hand may unclose:
Yet still it keeps such faded show
Of when 'twas gathered long ago,
That the crushed petals' lovely grain,
The sweetness of the sanguine stain,
Seen of a woman's eyes, must make
Her pitiful heart, so prone to ache,
Love roses better for its sake:—
Only that this can never be:—
Even so unto her sex is she.
(pp. 120-121, ll. 253-275)
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
