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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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Counterblast on Penny Trumpet.

[_]

“When raged the conflict, fierce & hot.”

If Mr. Bright retiring does not please
And Mr. Gladstone staying gives offence,
What can man do which is not one of these?
Use your own common sense.
Yet he's a brave man who abjures his cause
For conscience' sake: let byegones be byegones:

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Not this among the makers of our laws
The least & and last of Johns.
If all our byegones could be piled on shelves
High out of reach of penny-line Tyrtaeus!
If only all of us could see ourselves
As others see us!