Explore "Monna Innominata: a Sonnet of Sonnets" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"E la Sua Volontade è nostra pace. " -- Dante. / "Sol con questi pensier, con altre chiome. " -- Petrarca.
Youth gone, and beauty gone if ever there / Dwelt beauty in so poor a face as this; / Youth gone and beauty, what remains of bliss? / I will not bind fresh roses in my hair, / To shame a cheek at best but little fair, -- / Leave youth his roses, who can bear a thorn, -- / I will not seek for blossoms anywhere, / Except such common flowers as blow with corn. / Youth gone and beauty gone, what doth remain? / The longing of a heart pent up forlorn, / A silent heart whose silence loves and longs; / The silence of a heart which sang its songs / While youth and beauty made a summer morn, / Silence of love that cannot sing again.