Christina Georgina Rossetti

“ A husband honourable, brave, Is her main wealth in all the world: And next to him one like herself, One daughter golden-curled: Fair image of her own fair youth, As beautiful and as serene, With almost such another love As her own love has been. Yet, though of world-wide charity, And in her home most tender dove, Her treasure and her heart are stored In the home-land of love. She thrives, God's blessed husbandry; Most like a vine which full of fruit Doth cling and lean and climb toward heaven, While earth still binds its root. ”

“ To love and to remember; that is good: To love and to forget; that is not well: To lapse from love to hatred; that is hell And death and torment, rightly understood. Soul dazed by love and sorrow, cheer thy mood; More blest art thou than mortal tongue can tell: Ring not thy funeral but thy marriage bell, And salt with hope thy life's insipid food. Love is the goal, love is the way we wend, Love is our parallel unending line Whose only perfect Parallel is Christ, Beginning not begun, End without end: For He Who hath the heart of God sufficed, Can satisfy all hearts,--yea, thine and mine. ”

“ All form one flock, God's flock; all yield Him praise By joy or pain, still tending toward the prize. Joy speaks in praises there, and sings and flies Where no night is, exulting all its days; Here, pain finds solace, for, behold, it prays; In both love lives the life that never dies. Here life is the beginning of our death, And death the starting-point whence life ensues; Surely our life is death, our death is life: Nor need we lay to heart our peace or strife, But calm in faith and patience breathe the breath God gave, to take again when He shall choose. ”

“ All this and more I bore to prove My love, and wilt thou yet mistrust My love?" "Lord, I am fain to think Thou lovest me, For Thou art all in all and I am Thine; And lo! Thy love is better than new wine, And I am sick of love in loving Thee. But dost Thou love me? speak and save, For jealousy is cruel as the grave." "Nay, if thy love is not an empty breath My love is as thine own--deep answers deep. Peace, peace: I give to my beloved sleep, Not death but sleep, for love is strong as death: Take patience; sweet thy sleep shall be, Yea, thou shalt wake in Paradise with Me." ”

“ GROWN AND FLOWN. I loved my love from green of Spring Until sere Autumn's fall; But now that leaves are withering How should one love at all? One heart's too small For hunger, cold, love, everything. I loved my love on sunny days Until late Summer's wane; But now that frost begins to glaze How should one love again? Nay, love and pain Walk wide apart in diverse ways. I loved my love,--alas to see That this should be, alas! I thought that this could scarcely be, Yet has it come to pass: Sweet sweet love was, Now bitter bitter grown to me. ”

“ Grovel in dust with faces toward the goal Nor won, nor neared: he only laughs who wins. Not neared the goal, the race too late begins; Or left undone, we have yet to do the whole; The sun is hurrying west and toward the pole Where darkness waits for earth with all her kins. Let us to-day, while it is called to-day, Set out, if utmost speed may yet avail-- The shadows lengthen and the light grows pale: For who through darkness and the shadow of death, Darkness that may be felt, shall find a way, Blind-eyed, deaf-eared, and choked with failing breath? ”

“ I view the glory till I partly long, Yet lack the fire of love which quickens these. O, passing Angel, speed me with a song, A melody of heaven to reach my heart And rouse me to the race and make me strong; Till in such music I take up my part, Swelling those Hallelujahs full of rest, One, tenfold, hundred-fold, with heavenly art, Fulfilling north and south and east and west, Thousand, ten-thousand-fold, innumerable, All blent in one yet each one manifest; Each one distinguished and beloved as well As if no second voice in earth or heaven Were lifted up the Love of God to tell. ”

“ And gathering flowers I listened to the song Of every bird in bower. The world and I are far too full of bliss To think or plan or toil or care; The sun is waxing strong, The days are waxing long, And all that is, Is fair. [22] Here are my buds of lily and of rose, And here's my namesake-blossom, may; And from a watery spot See here forget-me-not, With all that blows To-day. Hark to my linnets from the hedges green, Blackbird and lark and thrush and dove, And every nightingale And cuckoo tells its tale, And all they mean Is love. ”

“ How she went up to glory From the sea-foam chill and hoary, From the sea-depth black and riven To the calm that is in Heaven? They went down, all the crew, The silks and spices too, The great ones and the small, One and all, one and all. Was it through stress of weather, Quicksands, rocks, or all together? Only the Raven knows this, And he will not disclose this.-- After a day and a year The bridal bells chime clear; After a year and a day The Bridegroom is brave and gay: Love is sound, faith is rotten; The old Bride is forgotten:-- Two ominous Ravens only Remember, black and lonely. ”

“ MARTYRS' SONG. We meet in joy, though we part in sorrow; We part to-night, but we meet to-morrow. Be it flood or blood the path that's trod, All the same it leads home to God: Be it furnace-fire voluminous, One like God's Son will walk with us. What are these that glow from afar, These that lean over the golden bar, Strong as the lion, pure as the dove, With open arms and hearts of love? They the blessed ones gone before, They the blessed forevermore. ”

“ While to my mind a root of balm it is, For love at length breeds love; sufficient bliss For life and death and rising up again. Surely when light of Heaven makes all things plain, Love will grow plain with all its mysteries; Nor shall we need to fetch from over seas Wisdom or wealth or pleasure safe from pain. Love in our borders, love within our heart, Love all in all, we then shall bide at rest, Ended for ever life's unending quest, Ended for ever effort, change and fear: Love all in all;--no more that better part Purchased, but at the cost of all things here. ”

“ In a dream it overleaps A world of tedious ills To where the sunshine sleeps On the everlasting hills.-- Say the Saints: There Angels ease us Glorified and white. They say: We rest in Jesus, Where is not day or night. My soul saith: I have sought For a home that is not gained, I have spent yet nothing bought, Have laboured but not attained; My pride strove to mount and grow, And hath but dwindled down; My love sought love, and lo! Hath not attained its crown.-- Say the Saints: Fresh souls increase us, None languish or recede. They say: We love our Jesus, And He loves us indeed. ”

“ Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome Has many sonnets: so here now shall be One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me To her whose heart is my heart's quiet home, To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome; Whose service is my special dignity, And she my loadstar while I go and come. And so because you love me, and because I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name: In you not fourscore years can dim the flame Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws Of time and change and mortal life and death. ”

“ Winged Angels of this visible world, we fly To sing God's praises in the lofty sky; We scale the height to praise our Lord most High. Eagle and Dove.
I the sun-gazing Eagle,-- I the Dove, With plumes of softness and a note of love,-- We praise by divers gifts One God above. Beasts and Cattle.
We forest Beasts,-- We Beasts of hill or cave,-- We border-loving Creatures of the wave,-- We praise our King with voices deep and grave. Small Animals.
God forms us weak and small, but pours out all We need, and notes us while we stand or fall: Wherefore we praise Him, weak and safe and small. ”

“ His hand shook as he plucked a rose, And the rose dropped dew. Take heart of grace! the portion of Life May go far to woo him a wife: If she frown, yet a lover's strife Lightly raised can be laid again: A hasty word is never the knife To cut love in twain. Far away stretched the royal land, Fed by dew, by a spice-wind fanned: Light labor more, and his foot would stand On the threshold, all labor done; Easy pleasure laid at his hand, And the dear Bride won. His slackening steps pause at the gate,-- Does she wake or sleep?--the time is late,-- Does she sleep now, or watch and wait? ”

“ PATIENCE OF HOPE. The flowers that bloom in sun and shade And glitter in the dew, The flowers must fade. The birds that build their nest and sing When lovely spring is new, Must soon take wing. The sun that rises in his strength To wake and warm the world, Must set at length. The sea that overflows the shore With billows frothed and curled, Must ebb once more. All come and go, all wax and wane, O Lord, save only Thou Who dost remain The Same to all eternity. All things which fail us now We trust to Thee. ”

“ These very shepherds of their flocks, These loving lambs so meek to please, Are worthy of recording words And honor in their due degrees: So I might live a hundred years, And roam from strand to foreign strand, Yet not forget this flooded spring And scarce-saved lambs of Westmoreland. A BIRTHDAY. My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a watered shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me. ”

“ Weary and weak,--accept my weariness; Weary and weak and downcast in my soul, With hope growing less and less, And with the goal Distant and dim,--accept my sore distress. I thought to reach the goal so long ago, At outset of the race I dreamed of rest, Not knowing what now I know Of breathless haste, Of long-drawn straining effort across the waste. One only thing I knew, Thy love of me; One only thing I know, Thy sacred same Love of me full and free, A craving flame Of selfless love of me which burns in Thee. ”

“ Shut into silence From the accustomed song Shut into solitude From all earth's throng, Run down though swift of foot, Thrust down though strong; Life made an end of, Seemed it short or long. Life made an end of, Life but just begun; Life finished yesterday, Its last sand run; Life new-born with the morrow Fresh as the sun: While done is done for ever; Undone, undone. And if that life is life, This is but a breath, The passage of a dream And the shadow of death; But a vain shadow If one considereth; Vanity of vanities, As the Preacher saith. ”

“ But miles of barren sand, With never a son or daughter, Not a lily on the land, Or lily on the water. A DIRGE. Why were you born when the snow was falling? You should have come to the cuckoo's calling, Or when grapes are green in the cluster, Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster For their far off flying From summer dying. Why did you die when the lambs were cropping? You should have died at the apples' dropping, When the grasshopper comes to trouble, And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble, And all winds go sighing For sweet things dying. ”

“ Who have hedged us both day and night On the left hand and on the right, Who have watched us both night and day Because the Devil keeps watch to slay. Light above light, and Bliss beyond bliss, Whom words cannot utter, lo, Who is This? As a King with many crowns He stands, And our names are graven upon His hands; As a Priest, with God-uplifted eyes, He offers for us His Sacrifice; As the Lamb of God for sinners slain, That we too may live He lives again; As our Champion behold Him stand, Strong to save us, at God's Right Hand. ”

“ Milk-white, wine-flushed among the vines, Up and down leaping, to and fro, Most glad, most full, made strong with wines, Blooming as peaches pearled with dew, Their golden windy hair afloat, Love-music warbling in their throat, Young men and women come and go. You linger, yet the time is short: Flee for your life, gird up your strength [73] To flee: the shadows stretched at length Show that day wanes, that night draws nigh; Flee to the mountain, tarry not. Is this a time for smile and sigh, For songs among the secret trees Where sudden bluebirds nest and sport? ”