Christina Georgina Rossetti

THE FLESH
"Sweet, thou art pale."
"More pale to see,
Christ hung upon the cruel tree

Morning and
Maids heard the goblins cry:"Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,

A hundred, a thousand to one; even so;  Not a hope in the world remained:
The swarming howling wretches below  Gained and gained and gained
Skene looked at his pale young wife:—  'Is the time come
'—'The time is come

One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,

The splendour of the kindling day, The splendor of the setting sun, These move my soul to wend its way, And have done With all we grasp and toil amongst and say
The paling roses of a cloud, The fading bow that arches space, These woo my fancy...

I sat beneath a willow tree,
Where water falls and calls;
While fancies upon fancies solaced me,
Some true, and some were false

The lilies of the field whose bloom is brief:—     We are as they;     Like them we fade away,
As doth a leaf
The sparrows of the air of small account:     Our God doth
Whether they fall or mount,—     He guards us too

Something this foggy day, a something which Is neither of this fog nor of today,
Has set me dreaming of the winds that play Past certain cliffs, along one certain beach,
And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray:
Ah pleasant pebbl...

Sleep, little Baby, sleep,
The holy Angels love thee,
And guard thy bed, and keepA blessed watch above thee
No spirit can come

My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water'd shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because ...

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,