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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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307

“Ye that fear Him, both small and great.”

Great or small below,
Great or small above;
Be we Thine, whom Thou dost know
And love:
First or last on earth,
First or last in Heaven;
Only weighted with Thy worth,
And shriven.
Wise or ignorant,
Strong or weak; Amen;
Sifted now, cast down, in want:—
But then?
Then,—when sun nor moon,
Time nor death, finds place,
Seeing in the eternal noon
Thy Face:
Then,—when tears and sighing,
Changes, sorrows, cease;
Living by Thy Life undying
In peace:
Then,—when all creation
Keeps its jubilee,
Crowned amid Thy holy nation;
Crowned, discrowned, in adoration
Of Thee.