Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). Echo. J. C. Squire, ed. 1921. A Book of Women's Verse

J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.

Echo

By Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)


COME to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,	5
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes	10
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give	15
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago!