The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti

When suddenly a star shoots from the skies,

Than all the other stars more

purely bright,

Replete with heavenly loves and harmonies.

He starts-what meets his full awakening sight?

Lo Leonora, with large humid eyes, Gazing upon him in the misty light. 19 December 1846.

LOVE

LOVE is all happiness, love is all beauty,

Love is the crown of flaxen heads
and hoary;

Love is the only everlasting duty;
And love is chronicled in endless

story,

And kindles endless glory.

24 February 1847.

THE SOLITARY ROSE

O HAPPY rose, red rose, that bloomest lonely

To steal thy honey when the day is dawning ;

Thou keep'st thy sweetness till the twilight's close,

O happy rose.

Then rest in peace, thou lone and lovely flower;

Yea be thou glad, knowing that

none are near thee,

To mar thy beauty in a wanton hour,
And scatter all thy leaves nor deign

to wear thee.

Securely in thy solitude repose,
O happy rose.

15 March 1847.

THE SONG OF THE STAR

I AM a Star dwelling on high

In the azure of the vaulted sky.

I shine on the land and I shine on

the sea,

And the little breezes talk to me.
The waves rise towards me every one,
And forget the brightness of the sun;
The growing grass springs up to-
wards me,

Where there are none to gather And forgets the day's fertility.

while they love thee; That art perfumed by thine own fragrance only,

Resting like incense round thee

and above thee ;

Thou hearest nought save some pure stream that flows,

O happy rose.

My face is light, and my beam is life,
And my passionless being hath no

strife.

In me no love is turned to hate,
No fullness is made desolate ;
Here is no hope, no fear, no grief,
Here is no pain and no relief;
Nor birth nor death hath part in me,
But a profound tranquillity.

What though for thee no nightin- The blossoms that bloomed yesterday

gales are singing?

They chant one eve, but hush them

in the morning.

Unaltered shall bloom on to-day,

And on the morrow shall not fade.
Within the everlasting shade

Near thee no little moths and bees The fountain gushing up for ever

are winging

Flows on to the eternal river,

That, running by a reedy shore,
Bubbles, bubbles evermore.
The happy birds sing in the trees
To the music of the southern breeze;
And they fear no lack of food,
Chirping in the underwood;
For ripe seeds and berried bushes
Serve the finches and the thrushes,
And all feathered fowls that dwell
In that shade majestical.
Beyond all clouds and all mistiness
I float in the strength of my loveli-

ness.

And I move round the sun with a measured motion

In the blue expanse of the skyey

ocean;

And I hear the song of the angel throng

In a river of ecstasy flow along,
Without a pausing, without a hushing,
Like an everlasting fountain's gush-
ing

That of its own will bubbles up
From a white untainted cup.
Countless planets float round me,
Differing all in majesty ;

Smaller some, and some more great,
Amethystine, roseate,

Golden, silvery, glowing blue,
Hueless, and of every hue.

Each and all, both great and small,
With a cadence musical,
Shoot out rays of glowing praise
Never ending, but always
Hymning the Creator's might
Who hath filled them full of light;
Pealing through eternity,
Filling out immensity;

Sun and moon and stars together
In heights where is no cloudy weather;
Where is nor storm nor mist nor

rain,

Where night goeth not to come again.

The living sleep not
With so much calm.
He hears no chiding
And no deriding,
Hath joy for sorrow,

For night hath morrow,
For wounds hath balm,
For life's strange riot
Hath death and quiet.
Who would recall him

Of those that love him?
No fears appall him,
No ills befall him;

There's nought above him Save turf and flowers

And pleasant grass.
Pass the swift hours,

How swiftly pass!
The hours of slumber
He doth not number;
Grey hours of morning
Ere the day's dawning;
Brightened by gleams
Of the sunbeams,—
By the foreseeing

Of resurrection,
Of glorious being,
Of full perfection,

« Previous Continue »

Books