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"A Better Resurrection"
30 June 1857
~Christina Rossetti(1830-1894)~
Christina Rosetti was sister to Dante Rosetti.
She published her earliest work in 1850.
She lived as a recluse for 15 years.
I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears.
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.
My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see;
Yet rise it shall � the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.
My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perished thing;
Melt and remold it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.
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Afternoon Tea
~Marianna Arolin~
My copper kettle
whistles merrily
and signals that
it is time for tea.
The fine china cups
are filled with the brew.
There's lemon and sugar
and sweet cream, too.
But, best of all
there's friendship,
between you and me.
As we lovingly share
our afternoon tea.
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How Do I Love Thee?
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning~
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth, and breadth, and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right:
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints.
I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life -
and if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
If The Past Year Were Offered Me Again
~Lady Gregory Augusta~
If the past year were offered me again,
And choice of good and ill before me set
Would I accept the pleasure with the pain
Or dare to wish that we had never met?
Ah! could I bear those happy hours to miss
When love began, unthought of and unspoke
That summer day when by a sudden kiss
We knew each other's secret and awoke?
Ah no! not even to escape the pain,
Debate and anguish that I underwent
Flying from thee and my own self in vain
With trouble wasted, till my strength all spent
I knew at last that thou or love or fate
Had conquered and repentance was too late.
"Love Is Strong as Death"
"I have not sought Thee, I have not found Thee,
I have not thirsted for Thee:
And now cold billows of death surround me,
Buffeting billows of death astound me, �
Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou see
Thy perishing me?"
"Yea, I have sought thee,
yea, I have found thee,
Yea, I have thirsted for thee,
Yea, long ago with love�s bands I bound thee:
Now the Everlasting Arms surround thee, �
Through death�s darkness I look and see
And clasp thee to Me."
Before 1882
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