View source for Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sonnet (1880)

==Text==

A sonnet is a moment's monument, -- 

Memorial from the Soul's eternity 

To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be, 

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent, 

Of its own arduous fulness reverent: 

Carve it in ivory or in ebony, 

As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see 

Its flowering crest impearled and orient.


A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals 

The soul, -- its converse, to what Power 'tis due: -- 

Whether for tribute to the august appeals 

Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, 

It serve, or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath, 

In Charon's palm it pay the toll of Death.

==Critical Edition==

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. "The Sonnet [1881]." ''The Works''. Ed. William Michael Rossetti. Hildesheim, New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 1972. 74. 

==Further Reading==

==External Links==

[[Category:19th century|1880]]
[[Category:1880s|1880]]
[[Category:By author|Rossetti, Dante Gabriel]]