Help finding the "right" poem

[Dark Muse]

http://www.artmagick.com/images/content/waterhouse/med/waterhouse197.jpg

Does anyone know of a good poem that would compliment the image above and reflect the themes and mood captured within the image? It is for a Pre-Rahapelite project I am currently working on.

It would be much appreciated if the poem could also come from around that same time period, but that is not an absolute requirement, as long as the poem is part of public domain so it can be used without any copyright restrictions.

I am still looking through some of my own resources but have not yet found just the right piece, and I thought it might be good to get some outside perspectives and see what others think.

P.S. If anyone is curious the image is The Crystal Ball by Waterhouse.

[AuntShecky]

Since reading your blogs, I've noticed your enviable knowledge -- as well as your impressive appreciation of-- the fine arts. You've probably already considered the Rosettis -- Dante and/or his sister Christina who of course were dubbed "Pre-Raphaelites." (I put Waterhouse through "the Google" and found that his dates were 1849-1917.
The Rosettis wrote their verse in the mid-1800s, when your painter was still a child. But at least all three lived in the same period, roughly.)

Just thumbing through my 19th c. British poetry anthology, here are a couple of suggestions:

Dante:

"The Burden of Nineveh" which begins:

"In our Museum galleries
To-day I lingered o'er the prize
Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes,--
Her Art for ever in fresh wise. . ."

You could also try Dante Rossetti's XXXI sonnet from The House of Life. It's subtitled "Her Gifts."


Christina
Here's an 1854 poem called "A Soul"

She stands as pale as Parian statues stand;
Like Cleopatra when she turned at bay,
And felt her strength above the Roman sway,
And felt the aspic writhing in her hand.
Her face is steadfast toward the shadowy land,
For dim beyond it looms the land of day:
Her feet are steadfast, all the arduous way
That foot-track doth not waver on the sand.
She stands there like a beacon through the night,
A pale clear beacon where the storm-drift is--
She stands alone, a wonder deathly-white:
She stands there patient nerved with inner might,
Indomitable in her feebleness,
Her face and will athirst against the light.

[Dark Muse]

Thank you for the lovely suggestions, I have acutally considered the possiblilty of using one of "The House of Life" works, perhaps I will revisit those.

I also really like Christina's "A Soul" poem.

[AuntShecky]

Also, DM, if you want to emphasize the future-forecasting aspect of "The Crystal Ball," a poem by another Pre-Raphaelite (actually, the only other poet of that type that I can think of)--William Morris, is titled "The Day Is Coming."

[Dark Muse]

Thank you, I will look into those was well.