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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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“Now they desire a Better Country.”

Love said nay, while Hope kept saying
All his sweetest say,
Hope so keen to start a-maying!—
Love said nay.

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Love was bent to watch and pray;
Long the watching, long the praying;
Hope grew drowsy, pale and grey.
Hope in dreams set off a-straying,
All his dream-world flushed by May;
While unslumbering, praying, weighing,
Love said nay.