"The Choice, III" (A Poem)

Originally published in his 1870 Poems and reprinted in his 1881 The House of Life, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “The Choice” is a collection of three sonnets which explore the pursuits of human life in relation to the finality of death. While some literary scholars read the trilogy as one cohesive unit, others read each poem as a separate piece which provides its own unique perspective.[1] Here, we will conduct a hybrid of both techniques, presenting each sonnet as its own distinct entry over the next three month, but acknowledging their united nature. The first sonnet, which was featured in May, critiques humanity’s futile quest for physical enjoyment. The second sonnet, which was featured last month, comments on mankind’s religious asceticism. The third sonnet, printed below, completes the narrative by discussing human self-development.

Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die.

Outstretched in the sun’s warmth upon the shore,

Thou say’st: “Man’s measured path is all gone o’er:

Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh,

Man clomb until he touched the truth; and I,

Even I, am he whom it was destined for.”

How should this be? Art thou then so much more

Than they who sowed, that thou shouldst reap thereby?

Nay, come up hither. From this wave-washed mound
Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me;
Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown’d.
Miles and miles distant though the last line be,
And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond, -
Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea.[2]

Works Referenced

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. “The Choice, I.” The House of Life: A Sonnet Sequence. 1881. Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1903. 76.

Rossetti, William Michael, ed. The Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti with Illustrations from His Own Pictures and Designs. London: Ellis and Elvey, 1904.

____________________

[1] W. Rossetti, 237-238.

[2] D. Rossetti, 76.