W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. For the Holy Family Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
TURN 1 not the prophet’s page, O Son! He knew All that thou hast to suffer, and hath writ. Not yet thine hour of knowledge. Infinite The sorrows that thy manhood’s lot must rue, And dire acquaintance of thy grief. That clue 5 The spirits of thy mournful ministerings Seek through yon scroll in silence. For these things The angels have desired to look into. Still before Eden waves the fiery sword,— Her Tree of Life unransomed: whose sad Tree 10 Of Knowledge yet to growth of Calvary Must yield its Tempter,—Hell the earliest dead Of Earth resign,—and yet, O Son and Lord, The seed o’ the woman bruise the serpent’s head.
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