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University of Virginia Library

The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti

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

Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830-1894)

I.

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II.

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I.

I Sing-Song A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872)

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RHYMES DEDICATED WITHOUT PERMISSION TO THE BABY WHO SUGGESTED THEM

[Angels at the foot]

[Love me,—I love you]

[My baby has a father and a mother]

[Our little baby fell asleep]

[“Kookoorookoo! kookoorookoo!”]

[Eight o'clock]

[Bread and milk for breakfast]

[There's snow on the fields]

[Dead in the cold, a song-singing thrush]

[I dug and dug amongst the snow]

[A city plum is not a plum]

[Your brother has a falcon]

[Hear what the mournful linnets say]

[A baby's cradle with no baby in it]

[Hop-o'-my-thumb and little Jack Horner]

[Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth]

[O wind, why do you never rest]

[Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?]

[Growing in the vale]

[A linnet in a gilded cage,—]

[Wrens and robins in the hedge]

[My baby has a mottled fist]

[Why did baby die]

[If all were rain and never sun]

[O wind, where have you been]

[On the grassy banks]

[Rushes in a watery place]

[Minnie and Mattie]

[Heartsease in my garden bed]

[If I were a Queen]

[What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow]

[There is but one May in the year]

[The summer nights are short]

[The days are clear]

[Twist me a crown of wind-flowers]

[Brown and furry]

[A toadstool comes up in a night,—]

[A pocket handkerchief to hem—]

[If a pig wore a wig]

[Seldom “can't,”]

[1 and 1 are 2—]

[How many seconds in a minute?]

[What will you give me for my pound?]

[January cold desolate]

[What is pink? a rose is pink]

[Mother shake the cherry-tree]

[A pin has a head, but has no hair]

[Hopping frog, hop here and be seen]

[Where innocent bright-eyed daisies are]

[The city mouse lives in a house;—]

[What does the donkey bray about?]

[Three plum buns]

[A motherless soft lambkin]

[Dancing on the hill-tops]

[When fishes set umbrellas up]

[The peacock has a score of eyes]

[Pussy has a whiskered face]

[The dog lies in his kennel]

[If hope grew on a bush]

[I planted a hand]

[Under the ivy bush]

[There is one that has a head without an eye]

[If a mouse could fly]

[Sing me a song—]

[The lily has an air]

[Margaret has a milking-pail]

[In the meadow—what in the meadow?]

[A frisky lamb]

[Mix a pancake]

[The wind has such a rainy sound]

[Three little children]

[Fly away, fly away over the sea]

[Minnie bakes oaten cakes]

[A white hen sitting]

[Currants on a bush]

[I have but one rose in the world]

[Rosy maiden Winifred]

[When the cows come home the milk is coming]

[Roses blushing red and white]

[“Ding a ding,”]

[A ring upon her finger]

[“Ferry me across the water]

[When a mounting skylark sings]

[Who has seen the wind?]

[The horses of the sea]

[O sailor, come ashore]

[A diamond or a coal?]

[An emerald is as green as grass]

[Boats sail on the rivers]

[The lily has a smooth stalk]

[Hurt no living thing]

[I caught a little ladybird]

[All the bells were ringing]

[Wee wee husband]

[I have a little husband]

[The dear old woman in the lane]

[Swift and sure the swallow]

[“I dreamt I caught a little owl]

[What does the bee do?]

[I have a Poll parrot]

[A house of cards]

[The rose with such a bonny blush]

[The rose that blushes rosy red]

[Oh fair to see]

[Clever little Willie wee]

[The peach tree on the southern wall]

[A rose has thorns as well as honey]

[Is the moon tired? she looks so pale]

[If stars dropped out of heaven]

[“Goodbye in fear, goodbye in sorrow]

[If the sun could tell us half]

[If the moon came from heaven]

[O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east]

[What do the stars do]

[Motherless baby and babyless mother]

[Crimson curtains round my mother's bed]

[Baby lies so fast asleep]

[I know a baby, such a baby,—]

[Lullaby, oh lullaby!]

II.

II Poems Added in Sing-Song A Nursery Rhyme Book (1893)

III.

III A Pageant and Other Poems (1881)

IV.

IV Poems Added in Poems (1888)

V.

V Verses (1893)

III.

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TEMPUS FUGIT.

Lovely Spring,
A brief sweet thing,
Is swift on the wing;
Gracious Summer,
A slow sweet comer,
Hastens past;
Autumn while sweet
Is all incomplete
With a moaning blast,—
Nothing can last,
Can be cleaved unto,
Can be dwelt upon;
It is hurried thro',
It is come and gone,
Undone it cannot be done,
It is ever to do,

95

Ever old, ever new,
Ever waxing old
And lapsing to Winter cold.