[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Sudden Light

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

I have been here before,
     But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
     The sweet, keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.
You have been mine before,—
     How long ago I may not know:
But just when at the swallow’s soar
     Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall—I knew it all of yore.
Then, now,—perchance again!…
     O round mine eyes your tresses shake!
Shall we not lie as we have lain
     Thus for Love’s sake,
And sleep, and wake, yet never break the chain?
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Poems | 1881
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.