Explore "The World" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Sonnet.
By day she wooes me, soft, exceeding fair: / But all night as the moon so changeth she; / Loathsome and foul with hideous leprosy, / And subtle serpents gliding in her hair. / By day she wooes me to the outer air, / Ripe fruits, sweet flowers, and full satiety: / But through the night, a beast she grins at me, / A very monster void of love and prayer. / By day she stands a lie: by night she stands, / In all the naked horror of the truth, / With pushing horns and clawed and clutching hands. / Is this a friend indeed; that I should sell / My soul to her, give her my life and youth, / Till my feet, cloven too, take hold on hell?