I loved you first: but afterwards your loveOutsoaring mine, sang such a loftier songAs drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.Which owes the other most? my love was long,And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;I loved and guessed at you, you construed meAnd loved me for what might or might not be—Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.For verily love knows not "mine" or "thine;"With separate "I" and "thou" free love has done,For one is both and both are one in love:Rich love knows nought of "thine that is not mine;"Both have the strength and both the length thereof,Both of us of the love which makes us one.
Christina Rossetti · Monna Innominata, Sonnet 4
Love & longing
“I loved you first: but afterwards your love”
- Author
- Christina Rossetti
- Work
- Monna Innominata, Sonnet 4
- Found in
- Poems
- Year
- 1881
- Length
- 125 words
- Source
- Project Gutenberg eBook #19188
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Christina Rossetti died in 1894, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1881. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
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