The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump |
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THE PLAGUE |
 | The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti |  |
THE PLAGUE
“Listen, the last stroke of death's noon has struck—The plague is come,” a gnashing Madman said,
And laid him down straightway upon his bed.
His writhèd hands did at the linen pluck;
Then all is over. With a careless chuck
Among his fellows he is cast. How sped
His spirit matters little: many dead
Make men hard-hearted.—“Place him on the truck.
Go forth into the burial-ground and find
Room at so much a pitful for so many.
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Keep thou back from the hot unwholesome wind,
That it infect not thee.” Say, is there any
Who mourneth for the multitude dead here?
| The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti | |