Christina Rossetti Quotes & Sayings

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me — Christina Rossetti

I'll love him til he loves me best
Me best of all, Maude Clare — Christina Rossetti

Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted

For my sake the fruit forbidden?

Must your light like mine be hidden,

Your young life like mine be wasted,

Undone in mine undoing,

And ruined in my ruin,

Thirsty, cankered, goblin-ridden?' -

She clung about her sister,

Kissed and kissed and kissed her:

Tears once again

Refreshed her shrunken eyes,

Dropping like rain

After long sultry drouth;

Shaking with aguish fear, and pain,

She kissed and kissed her with a hungry mouth.

Her lips began to scorch,

That juice was wormwood to her tongue,

She loathed the feast:

Writhing as one possessed she leaped and sung,

Rent all her robe, and wrung Her hands in lamentable haste... — Christina Rossetti

The violets whisper from the shade Which their own leaves have made: Men scent our fragrance on the air, Yet take no heed Of humble lessons we would read. — Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away, gone far away into the silent land. — Christina Rossetti

Hurt no living thing: Ladybird, nor butterfly, Nor moth with dusty wing. — Christina Rossetti

What is green? The grass is green,
With small flowers between.
What is violet? Clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange? Why, an orange,
Just an orange! — Christina Rossetti

Be the green grass above me, with showers and dewdrops wet; and if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget. — Christina Rossetti

Fallen from sonship, beggared of grace,
Grant me. Father, a servant's place. — Christina Rossetti

O cousin Kate, my love was true,
Your love was writ in sand:
If he had fooled not me but you,
If you had stood where i stand,
He'd not have won me with his love,
Nor bought me with his land;
I would have spit into his face
And not have taken his hand.
Yet I have a gift you have not got,
And seem not like to get:
For all your clothes and wedding-ring
I've little doubt you fret.
My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride,
Cling closer, closer yet:
Your father would give lands for one
to wear his coronet — Christina Rossetti

A pin has a head, but has no hair — Christina Rossetti

For I have hedged me with a thorny hedge,
I live alone, I look to die alone:
Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge,
Ghosts of my buried years, and friends come back,
My heart goes sighing after swallows flown
On sometime summer's unreturning track. — Christina Rossetti

Heaven is the presence of God. — Christina Rossetti

The rose saith in the dewy morn,
I am most fair;
Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn. — Christina Rossetti

The downhill path is easy, but there's no turning back ... — Christina Rossetti

Where innocent bright-eyes daisies are With blades of grass between, Each daisy stands up like a star Out of a sky of green. — Christina Rossetti

Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know? — Christina Rossetti

Spring's an expansive time: yet I don't trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither thro' the sunless hours. — Christina Rossetti

All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.
I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run ! Death runs apace. — Christina Rossetti

January cold and desolate;
February dripping wet;
March wind ranges;
April changes;
Birds sing in tune
To flowers of May,
And sunny June
Brings longest day;
In scorched July
The storm-clouds fly,
Lightning-torn;
August bears corn,
September fruit;
In rough October
Earth must disrobe her;
Stars fall and shoot
In keen November;
And night is long
And cold is strong
In bleak December. — Christina Rossetti

We must not look at goblin men — Christina Rossetti

It's surely summer. for there's a swallow: Come one swallow, his mate will follow, The bird race quicken and wheel and thicken. — Christina Rossetti

Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;
My silent heart, lie still and break:
Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed
For a dream's sake. — Christina Rossetti

Christmas hath a beauty ... lovelier than the world can show. — Christina Rossetti

And all the winds go sighing, for sweet things dying. — Christina Rossetti

Obedience is the fruit of faith;
patience is the early blossom on the tree of faith. — Christina Rossetti

She cried, "Laura," up the garden,
"Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeezed from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me;
For your sake I have braved the glen
And had to do with goblin merchant men. — Christina Rossetti

Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world His hands have made,
Born a stranger. — Christina Rossetti

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb.
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part.
Yet what can I give Him?
I give Him my heart. — Christina Rossetti

A Pause of Thought

I looked for that which is not, nor can be,
And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth
But years must pass before a hope of youth
Is resigned utterly.

I watched and waited with a steadfast will:
And though the object seemed to flee away
That I so longed for, ever day by day
I watched and waited still.

Sometimes I said: This thing shall be no more;
My expectation wearies and shall cease;
I will resign it now and be at peace:
Yet never gave it o'er.

Sometimes I said: It is an empty name
I long for; to a name why should I give
The peace of all the days I have to live?--
Yet gave it all the same.

Alas, thou foolish one! alike unfit
For healthy joy and salutary pain:
Thou knowest the chase useless, and again
Turnest to follow it. — Christina Rossetti

Good folk, I have no coin,
To take were to purloin:
I have no copper in my purse,
I have no silver either,
And all my gold is on the furze
That shakes in windy weather
Above the rusy heather. — Christina Rossetti

The city mouse lives in a house, The garden mouse lives in a bower — Christina Rossetti

Spring is when life's alive in everything. — Christina Rossetti

Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love Divine; Love was born at Christmas; Star and angels gave the sign. — Christina Rossetti

What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow. What are brief? today and tomorrow. What are frail? spring blossoms and youth. What are deep? the ocean and truth. — Christina Rossetti

A Robin said: The Spring will never come,
And I shall never care to build again.
A Rosebush said: These frosts are wearisome,
My sap will never stir for sun or rain.
The half Moon said: These nights are fogged and slow,
I neither care to wax nor care to wane.
The Ocean said: I thirst from long ago,
Because earth's rivers cannot fill the main.
When Springtime came, red Robin built a nest,
And trilled a lover's song in sheer delight.
Grey hoarfrost vanished, and the Rose with might
Clothed her in leaves and buds of crimson core.
The dim Moon brightened. Ocean sunned his crest,
Dimpled his blue, yet thirsted evermore. — Christina Rossetti

Oh that it were with me
As with the flower;
Blooming on its own tree
For butterfly and bee
Its summer morns:
That I might bloom mine hour
A rose in spite of thorns.
Oh that my work were done
As birds' that soar
Rejoicing in the sun:
That when my time is run
And daylight too,
I so might rest once more
Cool with refreshing dew. — Christina Rossetti

Where are the songs I used to know, Where are the notes I used to sing? I have forgotten everything I used to know so long ago. ("The Key-Note") — Christina Rossetti

I charge you at the Judgement make it plain,
My love of you was life and not a breath. — Christina Rossetti

Somewhere or other there must surely be
The face not seen, the voice not heard,
The heart that not yet - never yet - ah me!
Made answer to my word.
Somewhere or other, may be near or far;
Past land and sea, clean out of sight;
Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star
That tracks her night by night.
Somewhere or other, may be far or near;
With just a wall, a hedge, between;
With just the last leaves of the dying year
Fallen on a turf grown green. — Christina Rossetti

My heart is breaking for a little love — Christina Rossetti

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
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago — Christina Rossetti

Silence is more musical than any song. — Christina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird. — Christina Rossetti

For all night long I dreamed of you:
I woke and prayed against my will, Then slept to dream of you again. — Christina Rossetti

Golden head by golden head,
Like two pigeons in one nest
Folded in each other's wings,
They lay down in their curtained bed:
Like two blossoms on one stem,
Like two flakes of new-fall'n snow,
Like two wands of ivory
Tipped with gold for awful kings.
Moon and stars gazed in at them,
Wind sang to them lullaby,
Lumbering owls forbore to fly,
Not a bat flapped to and fro
Round their rest:
Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
Locked together in one nest. — Christina Rossetti

O Lord, who art our guide even unto death, grant us, I pray Thee, grace to follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. In little daily duties to which Thou callest us, bow down our wills to simple obedience. — Christina Rossetti

To me it seems our duty towards the Bible is to obey its teaching in faith. I do not think we are bound to understand or account for all its utterances. — Christina Rossetti

Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. — Christina Rossetti

Obedience is the fruit of faith. — Christina Rossetti

The loves that meet in Paradise shall cast out fear, And Paradise hath room for you and me and all. — Christina Rossetti

Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth. — Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their head, The wind is passing by. — Christina Rossetti

Observe this dew-drenched rose of Tyrian gardens A rose today. But you will ask in vain Tomorrow what it is; and yesterday It was the dust, the sunshine, and the rains. — Christina Rossetti

One day in the country
Is worth a month in town — Christina Rossetti

I dream of you to wake; would that I might Dream of you and not wake but slumber on. — Christina Rossetti

O Lord, I cannot plead my love of Thee: I plead Thy love of me: - the shallow conduit hails the unfathomed sea. — Christina Rossetti

She gave up beauty in her tender youth, gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways; she covered up her eyes lest they should gaze on vanity, and chose the bitter truth. — Christina Rossetti

Beautiful, delightful, noble, memorable, as is the world, I yet am well content in my shady crevice. — Christina Rossetti

A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.
My garden-plot I have not kept;
Faded and all-forsaken,
I weep as I have never wept:
Oh it was summer when I slept,
It's winter now I waken.
Talk what you please of future spring
And sun-warm'd sweet to-orrow:
Stripp'd bare of hope and everything,
No more to laugh, no more to sing,
I sit alone with sorrow. — Christina Rossetti

It is not the deed we do Though the deed be never so fair, But the love that the dear Lord looketh for, Hidden with lovely care In the heart of the deed so fair. — Christina Rossetti

Why one day in the country Is worth a month in town; Is worth a day and a year Of the dusty, musty, lag-last fashion That days drone elsewhere. — Christina Rossetti

Give me the lowest place: not that I dare
Ask for that lowest place, but Thou hast died
That I might live and share
Thy glory by Thy side.
Give me the lowest place: of if for me
That lowest place too high, make one more low
Where I may sit and see
My God and love Thee so. — Christina Rossetti

There is no time like Spring
When life's alive in everything,
Before new nestlings sing,
Before cleft swallows speed their journey back
Along the trackless track. — Christina Rossetti

For I am bound with fleshly bands,
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope. — Christina Rossetti

Better by far you should forget and smile that you should remember and be sad. — Christina Rossetti

What is pink? A rose is pink
By the fountain's brink. — Christina Rossetti

Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more, day by day,
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad. — Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen,
Snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago. — Christina Rossetti

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
'Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy — Christina Rossetti

Hope is like a hairball trembling from its birth ... — Christina Rossetti

Choose love not in the shallows
but in the deep. — Christina Rossetti

The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity. — Christina Rossetti

Ah me, but where are now the songs I sang
When life was sweet because you call'd them sweet? — Christina Rossetti

I have a room whereinto no one enters
Save I myself alone:
There sits a blessed memory on a throne,
There my life centres. — Christina Rossetti

And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek,
And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong, and life itself not weak. — Christina Rossetti

All things that pass Are wisdom's looking-glass. — Christina Rossetti

Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth. — Christina Rossetti

I might show facts as plain as day: but, since your eyes are blind, you'd say, 'Where? What?' and turn away. — Christina Rossetti

He took me in his strong white arms,
He bore me on his horse away
O'er crag, morass, and hairbreadth pass,
But never asked me yea or nay.

He held me fast with book and bell,
With links of love he makes me stay;
Till now I've neither heart nor power
Nor will nor wish to say him nay. — Christina Rossetti

Hope dead lives nevermore,
No, not in heaven. — Christina Rossetti

I believe because I am told to believe ... My faith is faith; it is not evolved out of argumentation, nor does it seek the aid of that. — Christina Rossetti

Who shall tell the lady's grief
When her Cat was past relief?
Who shall number the hot tears
Shed o'er her, beloved for years?
Who shall say the dark dismay
Which her dying caused that day? — Christina Rossetti

Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun. — Christina Rossetti

And may you happy live, And long us bless. — Christina Rossetti

Good deeds are many, but good lives are few ... — Christina Rossetti

To her whose heart is my heart's quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome. — Christina Rossetti

Love loves for ever,
And finds a sort of joy in pain,
And gives with nought to take again,
And loves too well to end in vain:
Is the gain small then?
Love laughs at "never",
Outlives our life, exceeds the span
Appointed to mere mortal man:
All which love is and does and can
Is all in all then. — Christina Rossetti

Where there are no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts and no one to thank. — Christina Rossetti

For one man is my world of all the men this wide world holds; O love, my world is you. — Christina Rossetti

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb'd too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm'd with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me. — Christina Rossetti

Flowers preach to us if we will hear. — Christina Rossetti

So tired am I, so weary of to-day,
So unrefreshed from foregone weariness,
So overburdened by foreseen distress,
So lagging and so stumbling on my way,
I scarce can rouse myself to watch or pray,
To hope, or aim, or toil for more or less,--
Ah, always less and less, even while I press
Forward and toil and aim as best I may.
Half-starved of soul and heartsick utterly,
Yet lift I up my heart and soul and eyes
Which fail in looking upward — Christina Rossetti

Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke,
I love, as you would have me, God the most;
Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look
Unready to forego what I forsook;
This say I, having counted up the cost,
This, tho' I be the feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.
Yet while I love my God the most, I deem
That I can never love you overmuch;
I love Him more, so let me love you too;
Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such
I cannot love you if I love not Him.
I cannot love Him if I love not you. — Christina Rossetti

This life is but the passage of a day,
This life is but a pang and all is over;
But in the life to come which fades not away
Every love shall abide and every lover. — Christina Rossetti

The Bourne Underneath the growing grass, Underneath the living flowers, Deeper than the sound of showers: There we shall not count the hours By the shadows as they pass. Youth and health will be but vain, Beauty reckoned of no worth: There a very little girth Can hold round what once the earth Seemed too narrow to contain. — Christina Rossetti

Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine. — Christina Rossetti

I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all? — Christina Rossetti

All earth's full rivers can not fillThe sea that drinking thirsteth still. — Christina Rossetti

A man is ever apt to contemplate himself out of all proportion to his surroundings. — Christina Rossetti