It would be superfluous to dwell at length on the extraordinary richness of Rossetti’s metaphor and simile. The imagery in the “House of Life” is for the most part sensuous, fervid, and almost tropical in colour and atmosphere. Here are a crowd of variously portentous spirits,—
... “Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen Past
To signal fires;”
... “Song, whose hair
Blew like a flame and blossomed like a wreath;”
... “Love, smiling to receive
Along his eddying plumes the auroral wind;”
And—
... “Life herself, the spirit’s friend and love,
Even still as Spring’s authentic harbinger