Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress and Other Poems

by Christina Rossetti

And where can it be,

  Not mine own country,

  But dearer far to me?

  Yet mine own country,

  If I one day may see

  Its spices and cedars,

  Its gold and ivory.

  As I lie dreaming

  It rises, that land:

  There rises before me

  Its green golden strand,

  With its bowing cedars

  And its shining sand;

  It sparkles and flashes

  Like a shaken brand.

  Do angels lean nearer

  While I lie and long?

  I see their soft plumage

  And catch their windy song,

  Like the rise of a high tide

  Sweeping full and strong;

  I mark the outskirts

  Of their reverend throng.

  Oh what is a king here,

  Or what is a boor?

  Here all starve together,

  All dwarfed and poor;

  Here Death's hand knocketh

  At door after door,

  He thins the dancers

  From the festal floor.

  Oh what is a handmaid,

  Or what is a queen?

  All must lie down together

  Where the turf is green,

  The foulest face hidden,

  The fairest not seen;

  Gone as if never,

  They had breathed or been.

  Gone from sweet sunshine

  Underneath the sod,

  Turned from warm flesh and blood

  To senseless clod,

  Gone as if never

  They had toiled or trod,

  Gone out of sight of all

  Except our God.

  Shut into silence

  From the accustomed song,

  Shut into solitude

  From all earth's throng,

  Run down tho' swift of foot,

  Thrust down tho' strong;

  Life made an end of

  Seemed it short or long.

  Life made an end of,

  Life but just begun,

  Life finished yesterday,

  Its last sand run;

  Life new-born with the morrow,

  Fresh as the sun:

  While done is done forever;

  Undone, undone.

  And if that life is life,

  This is but a breath,

  The passage of a dream

  And the shadow of death;

  But a vain shadow

  If one considereth;

  Vanity of vanities,

  As the Preacher saith.

  A SMILE AND A SIGH

  (Macmillan's Magazine, May 1868.)

  A SMILE because the nights are short!

  And every morning brings such pleasure

  Of sweet love-making, harmless sport:

  Love, that makes and finds its treasure;

  Love, treasure without measure.

  A sigh because the days are long!

  Long long these days that pass in sighing,

  A burden saddens every song:

  While time lags who should be flying,

  We live who would be dying.

  DEAD HOPE

  (Macmillan's Magazine, May 1868.)

  HOPE new born one pleasant morn

  Died at even;

  Hope dead lives nevermore.

  No, not in heaven.

  If his shroud were but a cloud

  To weep itself away;

  Or were he buried underground

  To sprout some day!

  But dead and gone is dead and gone

  Vainly wept upon.

  Nought we place above his face

  To mark the spot,

  But it shows a barren place

  In our lot.

  Hope has birth no more on earth

  Morn or even;

  Hope dead lives nevermore,

  No, not in heaven.

  AUTUMN VIOLETS

  (Macmillan's Magazine, November 1868.)

  KEEP love for youth, and violets for the spring:

  Or if these bloom when worn-out autumn grieves,

  Let them lie hid in double shade of leaves,

  Their own, and others dropped down withering;

  For violets suit when home birds build and sing,

  Not when the outbound bird a passage cleaves;

  Not with the stubble of mown harvest sheaves,

  But when the green world buds to blossoming.

  Keep violets for the spring, and love for youth,

  Love that should dwell with beauty, mirth, and hope:

  Or if a later sadder love be born,

  Let this not look for grace beyond its scope,

  But give itself, nor plead for answering truth—

  A grateful Ruth tho' gleaning scanty corn.

  'THEY DESIRE A BETTER COUNTRY'

  (Macmillan's Magazine, March 1869.)

  I

  I WOULD not if I could undo my past,

  Tho' for its sake my future is a blank;

  My past, for which I have myself to thank

  For all its faults and follies first and last.

  I would not cast anew the lot once cast,

  Or launch a second ship for one that sank,

  Or drug with sweets the bitterness I drank,

  Or break by feasting my perpetual fast.

  I would not if I could: for much more dear

  Is one remembrance than a hundred joys,

  More than a thousand hopes in jubilee;

  Dearer the music of one tearful voice

  That unforgotten calls and calls to me,

  'Follow me here, rise up, and follow here.'

  II

  What seekest thou far in the unknown land?

  In hope I follow joy gone on before,

  In hope and fear persistent more and more,

  As the dry desert lengthens out its sand.

  Whilst day and night I carry in my hand

  The golden key to ope the golden door

  Of golden home; yet mine eye weepeth sore

  For the long journey that must make no stand.

  And who is this that veiled doth walk with thee?

  Lo, this is Love that walketh at my right;

  One exile holds us both, and we are bound

  To selfsame home-joys in the land of light.

  Weeping thou walkest with him; weepeth he?—

  Some sobbing weep, some weep and make no sound.

  III

  A dimness of a glory glimmers here

  Thro' veils and distance from the space remote,

  A faintest far vibration of a note

  Reaches to us and seems to bring us near,

  Causing our face to glow with braver cheer,

  Making the serried mist to stand afloat,

  Subduing languor with an antidote,

  And strengthening love almost to cast out fear,

  Till for one moment golden city walls

  Rise looming on us, golden walls of home,

  Light of our eyes until the darkness falls;

  Then thro' the outer darkness burdensome

  I hear again the tender voice that calls,

  'Follow me hither, follow, rise, and come.'

  THE OFFERING OF THE NEW LAW, THE ONE OBLATION ONCE OFFERED

  (Lyra Eucharistica, 1863.)

  ONCE I thought to sit so high

  In the Palace of the sky;

  Now, I thank God for His Grace,

  If I may fill the lowest place.

  Once I thought to scale so soon

  Heights above the changing moon;

  Now, I thank God for delay—

  Today, it yet is called today.

  While I stumble, halt and blind,

  Lo! He waiteth to be kind;

  Bless me soon, or bless me slow,

  Except He bless, I let not go.

  Once for earth I laid my plan,

  Once I leaned on strength of man
,

  When my hope was swept aside,

  I stayed my broken heart on pride:

  Broken reed hath pierced my hand;

  Fell my house I built on sand;

  Roofless, wounded, maimed by sin,

  Fightings without and fears within:

  Yet, a tree, He feeds my root;

  Yet, a branch, He prunes for fruit;

  Yet, a sheep, these eves and morns,

  He seeks for me among the thorns.

  With Thine Image stamped of old,

  Find Thy coin more choice than gold;

  Known to Thee by name, recall

  To Thee Thy home-sick prodigal.

  Sacrifice and Offering

  None there is that I can bring,

  None, save what is Thine alone:

  I bring Thee, Lord, but of Thine Own—

  Broken Body, Blood Outpoured,

  These I bring, my God, my Lord;

  Wine of Life, and Living Bread,

  With these for me Thy Board is spread.

  CONFERENCE BETWEEN CHRIST, THE SAINTS, AND THE SOUL

  (Lyra Eucharistica, 1863.)

  I AM pale with sick desire,

  For my heart is far away

  From this world's fitful fire

  And this world's waning day;

  In a dream it overleaps

  A world of tedious ills

  To where the sunshine sleeps

  On th' everlasting hills.

  Say the Saints—There Angels ease us

  Glorified and white.

  They say—We rest in Jesus,

  Where is not day nor night.

  My Soul saith—I have sought

  For a home that is not gained,

  I have spent yet nothing bought,

  Have laboured but not attained;

  My pride strove to rise and grow,

  And hath but dwindled down;

  My love sought love, and lo!

  Hath not attained its crown.

  Say the Saints—Fresh Souls increase us,

  None languish nor recede.

  They say—We love our Jesus,

  And He loves us indeed.

  I cannot rise above,

  I cannot rest beneath,

  I cannot find out Love,

  Nor escape from Death;

  Dear hopes and joys gone by

  Still mock me with a name;

  My best belovèd die

  And I cannot die with them.

  Say the Saints—No deaths decrease us,

  Where our rest is glorious.

  They say—We live in Jesus,

  Who once dièd for us.

  Oh, my Soul, she beats her wings

  And pants to fly away

  Up to immortal Things

  In the Heavenly day:

  Yet she flags and almost faints;

  Can such be meant for me?

  Come and see—say the Saints.

  Saith Jesus—Come and see.

  Say the Saints—His Pleasures please us

  Before God and the Lamb.

  Come and taste My Sweets—saith Jesus—

  Be with Me where I am.

  COME UNTO ME

  (Lyra Eucharistica, second edition, 1864.)

  OH, for the time gone by, when thought of Christ

  Made His Yoke easy and His Burden light;

  When my heart stirred within me at the sight

  Of Altar spread for awful Eucharist;

  When all my hopes His Promises sufficed,

  When my Soul watched for Him by day, by night,

  When my lamp lightened and my robe was white,

  And all seemed loss, except the Pearl unpriced.

  Yet, since He calls me still with tender Call,

  Since He remembers Whom I half forgot,

  I even will run my race and bear my lot:

  For Faith the walls of Jericho cast down,

  And Hope to whoso runs holds forth a Crown,

  And Love is Christ, and Christ is All in all.

  JESUS, DO I LOVE THEE?

  (Lyra Eucharistica, second edition, 1864.)

  JESUS, do I love Thee?

  Thou art far above me,

  Seated out of sight

  Hid in Heavenly Light

  Of most highest height.

  Martyred hosts implore Thee,

  Seraphs fall before Thee,

  Angels and Archangels,

  Cherub throngs adore Thee;

  Blessed She that bore Thee!

  All the Saints approve Thee,

  All the Virgins love Thee.

  I show as a blot

  Blood hath cleansed not,

  As a barren spot

  In Thy fruitful lot.

  I, fig-tree fruit-unbearing;

  Thou, righteous Judge unsparing:

  What canst Thou do more to me

  That shall not more undo me?

  Thy Justice hath a sound—

  Why cumbereth it the ground?

  Thy Love with stirrings stronger

  Pleads—Give it one year longer.

  Thou giv'st me time: but who

  Save Thou shall give me dew;

  Shall feed my root with Blood,

  And stir my sap for good?

  Oh, by Thy Gifts that shame me,

  Give more lest they condemn me:

  Good Lord, I ask much of Thee,

  But most I ask to love Thee;

  Kind Lord, be mindful of me,

  Love me, and make me love Thee.

  I KNOW YOU NOT

  (Lyra Messianica, 1864.)

  O CHRIST, the Vine with living Fruit,

  The twelvefold-fruited Tree of Life,

  The Balm in Gilead after strife,

  The valley Lily and the Rose;

  Stronger than Lebanon, Thou Root;

  Sweeter than clustered grapes, Thou Vine;

  O Best, Thou Vineyard of red wine,

  Keeping thy best wine till the close.

  Pearl of great price Thyself alone,

  And ruddier than the ruby Thou;

  Most precious lightning Jasper stone,

  Head of the corner spurned before:

  Fair Gate of pearl, Thyself the Door;

  Clear golden Street, Thyself the Way;

  By Thee we journey toward Thee now,

  Through Thee shall enter Heaven one day.

  I thirst for Thee, full fount and flood;

  My heart calls Thine, as deep to deep:

  Dost Thou forget Thy sweat and pain,

  Thy provocation on the Cross?

  Heart-pierced for me, vouchsafe to keep

  The purchase of Thy lavished Blood:

  The gain is Thine, Lord, if I gain;

  Or if I lose, Thine own the loss.

  At midnight (saith the Parable)

  A cry was made, the Bridegroom came;

  Those who were ready entered in:

  The rest, shut out in death and shame,

  Strove all too late that Feast to win,

  Their die was cast, and fixed their lot;

  A gulf divided Heaven from Hell;

  The Bridegroom said—I know you not.

  But Who is this that shuts the door,

  And saith—I know you not—to them?

  I see the wounded hands and side,

  The brow thorn-tortured long ago:

  Yea; This Who grieved and bled and died,

  This same is He Who must condemn;

  He called, but they refused to know;

  So now He hears their cry no more.

  'BEFORE THE PALING OF THE STARS'

  (Lyra Messianica, 1864.)

  BEFORE the paling of the stars,

  Before the winter morn,

  Before the earliest cockcrow,

  Jesus Christ was born:

  Born in a stable,

  Cradled in a manger,