The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump |
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“I have fought a good fight.” |
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 | The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti |  |
135
“I have fought a good fight.”
“Who art thou that comest with a stedfast face
Thro' the hushed arena to the burying-place?”
“I am one whose footprints marked upon the sand
Cry in blood for vengeance on a guilty land.”
Thro' the hushed arena to the burying-place?”
“I am one whose footprints marked upon the sand
Cry in blood for vengeance on a guilty land.”
“How are these thy garments white as whitest snow
Tho' thy blood hath touched them in its overflow?”
“My blood cannot stain them, nor my tears make white;
One than I more mighty, He hath made them bright.”
Tho' thy blood hath touched them in its overflow?”
“My blood cannot stain them, nor my tears make white;
One than I more mighty, He hath made them bright.”
“Say, do thy wounds pain thee open every one,
Wounds that now are glowing clearer than the sun?”
“Nay, they are my gladness unalloyed by grief;
Like a desert fountain, or a long relief.”
Wounds that now are glowing clearer than the sun?”
“Nay, they are my gladness unalloyed by grief;
Like a desert fountain, or a long relief.”
“When the lion had thee in his deadly clasp,
Was there then no terror in thy stifled gasp?”
“Tho' I felt the crushing, and the grinding teeth,
He was with me ever, He Who comforteth.”
Was there then no terror in thy stifled gasp?”
“Tho' I felt the crushing, and the grinding teeth,
He was with me ever, He Who comforteth.”
“Didst thou hear the shouting, as of a great flood,
Crying out for vengeance, crying out for blood?”
“I heard it in silence, and was not afraid,
While for the mad people silently I prayed.”
Crying out for vengeance, crying out for blood?”
“I heard it in silence, and was not afraid,
While for the mad people silently I prayed.”
“Did their hate not move thee? art thou heedless then
Of the fear of children and the curse of men?”
“God looked down upon me from the Heaven above,
And I did not tremble, happy in His Love.”
Of the fear of children and the curse of men?”
“God looked down upon me from the Heaven above,
And I did not tremble, happy in His Love.”
| The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti | |