[Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome]

[Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome]

 

by Christina Rossetti

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome

      Has many sonnets: so here now shall be

   One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me

To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,

   To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee

I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;

   Whose service is my special dignity,

And she my loadstar while I go and come.

And so because you love me, and because

   I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath

      Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honoured name:

      In you not fourscore years can dim the flame

Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws

   Of time and change and mortal life and death.