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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Rest

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

O EARTH, lie heavily upon her eyes;

Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth;

Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth

With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs.

She hath no questions, she hath no replies,

Hush’d in and curtain’d with a blessèd dearth

Of all that irk’d her from the hour of birth;

With stillness that is almost Paradise.

Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,

Silence more musical than any song;

Even her very heart has ceased to stir:

Until the morning of Eternity

Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be;

And when she wakes she will not think it long.