Requiem

When I am dead, my dearest,        Sing no sad songs for me;    Plant thou no roses at my head,        Nor shady cypress tree:    Be the green grass above me        With showers and dewdrops wet;    And if thou wilt, remember,        And if thou wilt, forget.    I shall not see the shadows,      I shall not feel the rain;  I shall not hear the nightingale      Sing on, as if in pain:  And dreaming through the twilight      That doth not rise nor set,  Haply I may remember,      And haply may forget.

Composition Date:

Dec. 18481.

Christina's brother and editor,

William Michael Rossetti, commented: "This celebrated lyric ... has perhaps been oftener quoted, and certainly oftener set to music, than anything else by Christina Rossetti."