University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti

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

expand sectionI. 
collapse sectionII. 
expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
collapse sectionIII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionIII. 

[A roundel seems to fit a round of days]

A roundel seems to fit a round of days
Be they the days of upright man or scoundrel:
Allow me to construct then in your praise
A roundel.
[This flower of wit turns out a weed like groundsel:
Yet deign to welcome it, as loftiest bays
Grown on the shore of Girvan's ocean groundswell.]
Accept the love that underlies the lays;
Condone the barbarous rhymes that will not sound well
In building up, all Poets to amaze,
A roundel.