THAT voice I hear,—how heard I cannot tell,—
Although my home is this, seems from my home:
There… still it trails along and murmurs “Come”;
Like the slow death of sound within a bell,
Or like the humming whine in some pink shell
Wet with the brittle beadage of the foam
Which bird—eyed damsels stoop for when they roam
By the old sea. Were't not exceeding well
To shake my soul out of this tiresome life
For a call any—whence and any—whither?
That voice knows all the life I have or had,
And mocks me not,—it's whisper is too sad.
Even to attain calm sorrow lures me thither,
Since here this search for joy wearies like strife.
this search for joy wearies like strife. - - ] human beings actually can have a surfeit of joy and need the leaven of sorrow or melancholy to feel deeply about the different paths we walk on during life's journey
the great Dante. we studied him in Literature classed. a great poet....... tony
The similies in lines 4-7 make this poem worthwhile for me despite the dash instead of the hyphen between bird and eyed, it’s that should be its, and the stops in the flow of Rossetti’s thought within this sonnet (which literally means little song) . I persisted and do relate to a voice, a something, from a life we feel we’re mired in or in which we’ve plateaued. -GK
'At Issue' is the call of life, the search. 'And mocks me not, - it's whisper is too sad.'
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Such a great write by Dante Gabriel Rossetti👍👍👍