Explore "Monna Innominata: a Sonnet of Sonnets" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda. " -- Dante. / "Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore, / E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. " -- Petrarca.
I loved you first: but afterwards your love / Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song / As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove. / Which owes the other most? my love was long, / And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong; / I loved and guessed at you, you construed me / And loved me for what might or might not be -- / Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong. / For verily love knows not "mine" or "thine; " / With separate "I" and "thou" free love has done, / For one is both and both are one in love: / Rich love knows nought of "thine that is not mine; " / Both have the strength and both the length thereof, / Both of us of the love which makes us one.