Explore "Monna Innominata: a Sonnet of Sonnets" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Come dicesse a Dio: D'altro non calme. " -- Dante. / "Spero trovar pietà non che perdono. " -- Petrarca.
"I, if I perish, perish" -- Esther spake: / And bride of life or death she made her fair / In all the lustre of her perfumed hair / And smiles that kindle longing but to slake. / She put on pomp of loveliness, to take / Her husband through his eyes at unaware; / She spread abroad her beauty for a snare, / Harmless as doves and subtle as a snake. / She trapped him with one mesh of silken hair, / She vanquished him by wisdom of her wit, / And built her people's house that it should stand: -- / If I might take my life so in my hand, / And for my love to Love put up my prayer, / And for love's sake by Love be granted it!