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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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[Time lengthening, in the lengthening seemeth long]

Time lengthening, in the lengthening seemeth long:
But ended Time will seem a little space,
A little while from morn to evensong,
A little while that ran a rapid race;
A little while, when once Eternity
Denies proportion to the other's pace.
Eternity to be and be and be,
Ever beginning, never ending still,
Still undiminished far as thought can see;
Farther than thought can see, by dint of will
Strung up and strained and shooting like a star
Past utmost bound of everlasting hill:

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Eternity unswaddled, without bar,
Finishing sequence in its awful sum;
Eternity still rolling forth its car,
Eternity still here and still to come.