University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti

A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump
Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830-1894)

collapse sectionI. 
VOLUME I
expand sectionI. 
I Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)
expand sectionII. 
II The Prince's Progress and Other Poems (1866)
expand sectionIII. 
III Poems Added in Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress and Other Poems (1875)
expand sectionII. 
VOLUME II
expand sectionIII. 
VOLUME III

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti
next section

Acme.

Sleep, unforgotten sorrow, sleep awhile;
Make even awhile as tho' I might forget,
Let the wound staunch thy tedious fingers fret
Till once again I look abroad and smile
Warmed in the sunlight: let no tears defile
This hour's content, no conscious thorns beset
My path; O sorrow slumber, slumber yet
A moment, rouse not yet the smouldering pile.
252

So shalt thou wake again with added strength
O unforgotten sorrow, stir again
The slackening fire, refine the lulling pain
To quickened torture and a subtler edge:
The wrung cord snaps at last; beneath the wedge
The toughest oak groans long but rends at length.
previous section The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti
next section