Poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti | Poetree

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In The Willow Shade

In The Willow Shade

I sat beneath a willow tree,

Where water falls and calls;

While fancies upon fancies solaced me,

Some true, and some were false.

Who set their heart upon a hope

That never comes to pass,

Droop in the end like fading heliotrope

The sun's wan looking-glass.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

Who Shall Deliver Me?

Who Shall Deliver Me?

God strengthen me to bear myself;

That heaviest weight of all to bear,

Inalienable weight of care.

All others are outside myself,

I lock my door and bar them out

The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.

I lock my door upon myself,

And bar them out; but who shall wall

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents

Sleep, little Baby, sleep,

The holy Angels love thee,

And guard thy bed, and keep

A blessed watch above thee.

No spirit can come near

Nor evil beast to harm thee:

Sleep, Sweet, devoid of fear

Where nothing need alarm thee.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

Fluttered Wings

Fluttered Wings

The splendour of the kindling day,

The splendor of the setting sun,

These move my soul to wend its way,

And have done

With all we grasp and toil amongst and say.

The paling roses of a cloud,

The fading bow that arches space,

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Baby's Cradle With No Baby In It

A Baby's Cradle With No Baby In It

A baby's cradle with no baby in it,

A baby's grave where autumn leaves drop sere;

The sweet soul gathered home to Paradise,

The body waiting here.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

How Many Seconds In A Minute?

How Many Seconds In A Minute?

How many seconds in a minute?

Sixty, and no more in it.

How many minutes in an hour?

Sixty for sun and shower.

How many hours in a day?

Twenty-four for work and play.

How many days in a week?

Seven both to hear and speak.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Hope Carol

A Hope Carol

A night was near, a day was near,

Between a day and night

I heard sweet voices calling clear,

Calling me:

I heard a whirr of wing on wing,

But could not see the sight;

I long to see my birds that sing,

I long to see.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Pause

A Pause

They made the chamber sweet with flowers and leaves,

And the bed sweet with flowers on which I lay;

While my soul, love-bound, loitered on its way.

I did not hear the birds about the eaves,

Nor hear the reapers talk among the sheaves:

Only my soul kept watch from day to day,

My thirsty soul kept watch for one away:—

Perhaps he loves, I thought, remembers, grieves.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

Consider

Consider

Consider

The lilies of the field whose bloom is brief:—

We are as they;

Like them we fade away,

As doth a leaf.

Consider

The sparrows of the air of small account:

Our God doth view

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

An Echo from Willowood

An Echo from Willowood

“Oh Ye, All Ye That Walk in Willowwood”

Two gaz’d into a pool, he gaz’d and she,

Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,

Pale and reluctant on the water’s brink

AS on the brink of parting which must be.

Each eyed the other’s aspect, she and he,

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

Twice

Twice

I took my heart in my hand

(O my love, O my love),

I said: Let me fall or stand,

Let me live or die,

But this once hear me speak-

(O my love, O my love)-

Yet a woman's words are weak;

You should speak, not I.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti

An Apple-Gathering

An Apple-Gathering

I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple tree

And wore them all that evening in my hair:

Then in due season when I went to see

I found no apples there.

With dangling basket all along the grass

As I had come I went the selfsame track:

My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass

So empty-handed back.

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Christina Georgina Rossetti