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The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti

A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump

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337

[I said good bye in hope]

I said good bye in hope:
But now we meet again
I have no hope at all
Of anything but pain,
Our parting & our meeting
Alike in vain.
Hope on thro' all your life
Until the end, dear Friend.
Live thro' your noble life
Where joy & promise blend:
I too will live my life
Until the end.
Long may your vine entwine,
Long may your figtree spread
Their paradise of shade
Above your cherished head:
My shelter was a gourd,
And it is dead.
Yet when out of a grave
We are gathered home at last,
Then may we own life spilt
No good worth holding fast:—
Death had its bitterness
But it is past.