Requiem

When I am dead, my dearest,

        Sing no sad songs for me;

    Plant thou no roses at my head,

        Nor shady cypress tree:

    Be the green grass above me

        With showers and dewdrops wet;

    And if thou wilt, remember,

        And if thou wilt, forget.

    I shall not see the shadows,

      I shall not feel the rain;

  I shall not hear the nightingale

      Sing on, as if in pain:

  And dreaming through the twilight

      That doth not rise nor set,

  Haply I may remember,

      And haply may forget.

Composition Date:Dec. 18481.Christina's brother and editor, William Michael Rossetti, commented: "This celebrated lyric ... has perhaps been oftener quoted, and certainly oftener set to music, than anything else by Christina Rossetti."