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We, we only are left!—

With frowning foreheads, with lips
Sternly compress'd, we strain on,
On-and at nightfall at last
Come to the end of our way,
To the lonely inn 'mid the rocks;
Where the gaunt and taciturn host
Stands on the threshold, the wind
Shaking his thin white hairs-
Holds his lantern to scan

Our storm-beat figures, and asks:
Whom in our party we bring?
Whom we have left in the snow?

Sadly we answer: We bring
Only ourselves! we lost

Sight of the rest in the storm.
Hardly ourselves we fought through,
Stripp'd without friends, as we are.
Friends, companions, and train,
The avalanche swept from our side.

But thou would'st not alone
Be saved, my father! alone
Conquer and come to thy goal,
Leaving the rest in the wild.
We were weary, and we
Fearful, and we in our march
Fain to drop down and to die.
Still thou turnedst, and still
Beckonedst the trembler, and still
Gavest the weary thy hand.

If, in the paths of the world,
Stones might have wounded thy feet,
Toil or dejection have tried

Thy spirit, of that we saw
Nothing to us thou wast still
Cheerful, and helpful, and firm!
Therefore to thee it was given
Many to save with thyself;
And, at the end of thy day,
O faithful shepherd! to come,
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.

And through thee I believe

In the noble and great who are gone; Pure souls honour'd and blest

By former ages, who else

Such, so soulless, so poor,

Is the race of men whom I see-
Seem'd but a dream of the heart,
Seem'd but a cry of desire.
Yes! I believe that there lived
Others like thee in the past,
Not like the men of the crowd
Who all round me to-day
Bluster or cringe, and make life
Hideous, and arid, and vile;
But souls temper'd with fire,
Fervent, heroic, and good,
Helpers and friends of mankind.

Servants of God!-or sons
Shall I not call you? because
Not as servants ye knew
Your Father's innermost mind,
His, who unwillingly sees
One of his little ones lost-

Yours is the praise, if mankind

Hath not as yet in its march
Fainted, and fallen, and died!

See! In the rocks of the world
Marches the host of mankind,
A feeble, wavering line.

Where are they tending?-A God
Marshall'd them, gave them their goal.
Ah, but the way is so long!

Years they have been in the wild!
Sore thirst plagues them; the rocks,
Rising all round, overawe;

Factions divide them, their host
Threatens to break, to dissolve.
-Ah, keep, keep them combined!
Else, of the myriads who fill
That army, not one shall arrive;
Sole they shall stray; in the rocks
Stagger for ever in vain,

Die one by one in the waste.

Then, in such hour of need
Of your fainting, dispirited race,
Ye, like angels, appear,
Radiant with ardour divine!
Beacons of hope, ye appear!
Languor is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
Weariness not on your brow.
Ye alight in our van! at your voice,
Panic, despair, flee away.

Ye move through the ranks, recall
The stragglers, refresh the outworn,
Praise, re-inspire the brave!

Order, courage, return;

Eyes rekindling, and prayers,
Follow your steps as ye go.
Ye fill up the gaps in our files,
Strengthen the wavering line,
Stablish, continue our march,
On, to the bound of the waste,
On, to the City of God.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Lebensdaten.

1828, 12. Mai, geboren in London.

1842-1846, Cary's Kunstschule.

1846-1848, Kunststudien an der Royal Academy. 1848, Anschluß an Ford Madox Brown (* 1821, † 1893). Gründung der "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood".

1849, Ausstellung der ersten präraphaelitischen Gemälde.
(Rossetti: "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin".)
1850, Die Präraphaelitenzeitschrift "The Germ", mit R's.
ersten Gedichten.

1860, 23. Mai, Heirat mit Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal.
1862, 11. Febr., † Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti.
1882, 9. April, † zu Birchington-on-Sea (Kent).

Berühmteste Gemälde.

Daten nach Marillier. Die endgiltige bezw. bekannteste Version; Studien und Repliken nicht berücksichtigt. Wo nicht anders bemerkt, in Öl.

1849. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin.

1850. Ecce Ancilla Domini.

1857 [signiert "Xmas 1857-8"]. A Christmas Carol.

Aquarell. Ein ganz verschiedenes Ölgemälde gleichen
Namens 1867.

1858. Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee. Federzeichnung. In Öl und als Aquarell 1865.

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