The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump |
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The Faithless Shepherdess. |
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The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti | ||
The Faithless Shepherdess.
1
There once was a time when I loved,'Tis gone to return never more;
My shepherdess faithless has proved,
The maiden I once did adore.
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2
And now we are parted for ever,And gone are my hopes and my fears,
To forget Phillis false I'll endeavour,
And arrest all these fast-flowing tears.
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Yet wherever I turn I must thinkOf her who is faithless to me;
I stand by the rivulet's brink,
And the play of its waters I see.
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'Twas there I first told her my love,And she blushingly bade me hope still,
And the moon looking down from above
Seemed to smile on the murmuring rill;
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On the rill that was murm'ring of loveTo its beautiful mistress in heaven,
The moon seeming to speak far above
Of the rays that in token she'd given;
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In token of love never-ending,And pure as when first 'twas avowed,
As long as that stream should be sending
Soft sighs to its Queen in the cloud.
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And false Phillis swore that she'd everKeep faithful her pure heart to me,
That she'd think of another love never,
So long as the rill true should be.
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8
The rill to its love true remains,The moon still smiles on it from heaven,
But from you I've experienced sharp pains,
That the rill to the moon ne'er has given.
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And now we are parted for ever,And gone are my hopes and my fears;
To forget Phillis false I'll endeavour,
And arrest all these fast-flowing tears.
The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti | ||