That lamp thou fill'st in Eros' name to-night, <br />O Hero, shall the Sestian augurs take <br />To-morrow, and for drowned Leander's sake <br />To Anteros its fireless lip shall plight. <br />Aye, waft the unspoken vow: yet dawn's first light <br />On ebbing storm and life twice ebb'd must break; <br />While 'neath no sunrise, by the Avernian Lake, <br />Lo where Love walks, Death's pallid neophyte. <br />That lamp within Anteros' shadowy shrine <br />Shall stand unlit (for so the gods decree) <br />Till some one man the happy issue see <br />Of a life's love, and bid its flame to shine: <br />Which still may rest unfir'd; for, theirs or thine, <br />O brother, what brought love to them or thee?<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-lxxxviii-hero-s-lamp/
