BEHOLD Fiammetta, shown in Vision here. <br />Gloom-girt 'mid Spring-flushed apple-growth she stands; <br />And as she sways the branches with her hands, <br />Along her arm the sundered bloom falls sheer, <br />In separate petals shed, each like a tear; <br />While from the quivering bough the bird expands <br />His wings. And lo! thy spirit understands <br />Life shaken and shower'd and flown, and Death drawn near. <br />All stirs with change. Her garments beat the air: <br />The angel circling round her aureole <br />Shimmers in flight against the tree's grey bole: <br />While she, with reassuring eyes most fair, <br />A presage and a promise stands; as 'twere <br />On Death's dark storm the rainbow of the Soul.<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fiammetta/
