Quotes from Christina Rossetti

When I was merry and young, too young to feel afraid

A Daughter of Eve... My garden-plot I have not kept; Faded and all-forsaken, I weep as I have never wept: Oh it was summer when I slept, It's winter now I waken.

A Daughter of Eve... Talk what you please of future spring And sun-warm'd sweet to-morrow: Stripp'd bare of hope and everything, No more to laugh, no more to sing, I sit alone with sorrow.

A nameless girl in freshest summer greens, A saint, an angel;

When mysteries shall be revealed; All secrets be unsealed; When things of night, when things of shame, Shall find at last a name… ~ Sooner or Later: Yet at Last

Oh foolishest fond folly of a heart Divided, neither here nor there at rest! That hankers after Heaven, but clings to earth That neither here nor there knows thorough mirth, Half-choosing, wholly missing, the good part: — Oh fool among the foolish, in thy quest. ~ Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets

A Riddle There is one that has a head without an eye, And there's one that has an eye without a head. You may find the answer if you try; And when all is said, Half the answer hangs upon a thread.

A pair of peasants must be saved even if we build an ark.

A Daughter of Eve... A fool I was to sleep at noon, And wake when night is chilly Beneath the comfortless cold moon; A fool to pluck my rose too soon, A fool to snap my lily.

There is no time like Spring, When life's alive in everything

Fly away, fly away over the sea, Sun-loving swallow, for summer is done; Come again, come again, come back to me, Bringing the summer and bringing the sun.

For a future buds in everything; Grown, or blown, Or about to break.

I WISH I WERE A LITTLE BIRD I wish I were a little bird That out of sight doth soar, I wish I were a song once heard But often pondered o'er, Or shadow of a lily stirred By wind upon the floor, Or echo of a loving word Worth all that went before, Or memory of a hope deferred That springs again no more.

Have done with sorrow I will bring you plums tomorrow.

My tears were swallowed by the sea; Her songs died on the air.

Come buy, come buy

To-morrow,' cried they, one and all, While no one spoke of yesterday. 20 Their life stood full at blessed noon; I, only I, had passed away: 'To-morrow and to-day,' they cried; I was of yesterday.

And may you happy live, And long us bless.

What can I give Him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a Wise Man I would do my part. Yet what can I give Him? I give Him my heart.

Christmas hath a beauty ... lovelier than the world can show.

Be the green grass above me, with showers and dewdrops wet; and if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget.

Who shall tell the lady's griefWhen her Cat was past relief?Who shall number the hot tearsShed o'er her, beloved for years?Who shall say the dark dismayWhich her dying caused that day?

Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white.

Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts, and no one to thank.