As thy friend's face, with shadow of soul o'erspread, <br />Somewhile unto thy sight perchance hath been <br />Ghastly and strange, yet never so is seen <br />In thought, but to all fortunate favour wed; <br />As thy love's death-bound features never dead <br />To memory's glass return, but contravene <br />Frail fugitive days, and alway keep, I ween, <br />Than all new life a livelier lovelihead:— <br />So Life herself, thy spirit's friend and love, <br />Even still as Spring's authentic harbinger <br />Glows with fresh hours for hope to glorify; <br />Though pale she lay when in the winter grove <br />Her funeral flowers were snow-flakes shed on her <br />And the red wings of frost-fire rent the sky.<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-xcvi-life-the-beloved/
