Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (278 page)

 
‘Good folk,’ said Lizzie,
Mindful of Jeanie:
‘Give me much and many:’ —
Held out her apron,
Tossed them her penny.
‘Nay, take a seat with us,
Honour and eat with us,’
They answered grinning:
  
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‘Our feast is but beginning.
Night yet is early,
Warm and dew-pearly,
Wakeful and starry:
Such fruits as these
No man can carry;
Half their bloom would fly,
Half their dew would dry,
Half their flavour would pass by.
Sit down and feast with us,
  
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Be welcome guest with us,
Cheer you and rest with us.’ —
‘Thank you,’ said Lizzie: ‘But one waits
At home alone for me:
So without further parleying,
If you will not sell me any
Of your fruits though much and many,
Give me back my silver penny
I tossed you for a fee.’ —
They began to scratch their pates,
  
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No longer wagging, purring,
But visibly demurring,
Grunting and snarling.
One called her proud,
Cross-grained, uncivil;
Their tones waxed loud,
Their looks were evil.
Lashing their tails
They trod and hustled her,
Elbowed and jostled her,
  
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Clawed with their nails,
Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking,
Tore her gown and soiled her stocking,
Twitched her hair out by the roots,
Stamped upon her tender feet,
Held her hands and squeezed their fruits
Against her mouth to make her eat.

 
White and golden Lizzie stood,
Like a lily in a flood, —
Like a rock of blue-veined stone
  
410
Lashed by tides obstreperously, —
Like a beacon left alone
In a hoary roaring sea,
Sending up a golden fire, —
Like a fruit-crowned orange-tree
White with blossoms honey-sweet
Sore beset by wasp and bee, —
Like a royal virgin town
Topped with gilded dome and spire
Close beleaguered by a fleet
  
420
Mad to tug her standard down.

 
One may lead a horse to water,
Twenty cannot make him drink.
Though the goblins cuffed and caught her,
Coaxed and fought her,
Bullied and besought her,
Scratched her, pinched her black as ink,
Kicked and knocked her,
Mauled and mocked her,
Lizzie uttered not a word;
  
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Would not open lip from lip
Lest they should cram a mouthful in:
But laughed in heart to feel the drip
Of juice that syrupped all her face,
And lodged in dimples of her chin,
And streaked her neck which quaked like curd.
At last the evil people,
Worn out by her resistance,
Flung back her penny, kicked their fruit
Along whichever road they took,
  
440
Not leaving root or stone or shoot;
Some writhed into the ground,
Some dived into the brook
With ring and ripple,
Some scudded on the gale without a sound,
Some vanished in the distance.

 
In a smart, ache, tingle,
Lizzie went her way;
Knew not was it night or day;
Sprang up the bank, tore thro’ the furze,
  
450
Threaded copse and dingle,
And heard her penny jingle
Bouncing in her purse, —
Its bounce was music to her ear.
She ran and ran
As if she feared some goblin man
Dogged her with gibe or curse
Or something worse:
But not one goblin skurried after,
Nor was she pricked by fear;
  
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The kind heart made her windy-paced
That urged her home quite out of breath with haste
And inward laughter.

 
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.
  
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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.’

 
Laura started from her chair,
Flung her arms up in the air,
Clutched her hair:
‘Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted
For my sake the fruit forbidden?
Must your light like mine be hidden,
  
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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;
  
490
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,
And beat her breast.
Her locks streamed like the torch
  
500
Borne by a racer at full speed,
Or like the mane of horses in their flight,
Or like an eagle when she stems the light
Straight toward the sun,
Or like a caged thing freed,
Or like a flying flag when armies run.

 
Swift fire spread through her veins, knocked at her heart,
Met the fire smouldering there
And overbore its lesser flame;
She gorged on bitterness without a name:
  
510
Ah! fool, to choose such part
Of soul-consuming care!
Sense failed in the mortal strife:
Like the watch-tower of a town
Which an earthquake shatters down,
Like a lightning-stricken mast,
Like a wind-uprooted tree
Spun about,
Like a foam-topped waterspout
Cast down headlong in the sea,
  
520
She fell at last;
Pleasure past and anguish past,
Is it death or is it life?

 
Life out of death.
That night long Lizzie watched by her,
Counted her pulse’s flagging stir,
Felt for her breath,
Held water to her lips, and cooled her face
With tears and fanning leaves:
But when the first birds chirped about their eaves,
  
530
And early reapers plodded to the place
Of golden sheaves,
And dew-wet grass
Bowed in the morning winds so brisk to pass,
And new buds with new day
Opened of cup-like lilies on the stream,
Laura awoke as from a dream,
Laughed in the innocent old way,
Hugged Lizzie but not twice or thrice;
Her gleaming locks showed not one thread of grey,
  
540
Her breath was sweet as May
And light danced in her eyes.

 
Days, weeks, months, years
Afterwards, when both were wives
With children of their own;
Their mother-hearts beset with fears,
Their lives bound up in tender lives;
Laura would call the little ones
And tell them of her early prime,
Those pleasant days long gone
  
550
Of not-returning time:
Would talk about the haunted glen,
The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men,
Their fruits like honey to the throat
But poison in the blood;
(Men sell not such in any town:)
Would tell them how her sister stood
In deadly peril to do her good,
And win the fiery antidote:
Then joining hands to little hands
  
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Would bid them cling together,
‘For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.’

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Song

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

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
  
5
 
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;
  
10
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,
  
15
 
And haply may forget.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Remember

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

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
  
5
 
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
 
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:
  
10
 
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.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Up-Hill

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

DOES the road wind up-hill all the way?
 
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
 
From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?
  
5
 
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
 
You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
 
Those who have gone before.
  
10
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
 
They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
 
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
  
15
 
Yea, beds for all who come.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

In the Round Tower at Jhansi

June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

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.
  
5
 
‘Is the time come?’— ‘The time is come.’
Young, strong, and so full of life,
 
The agony struck them dumb.

Close his arm about her now,
 
Close her cheek to his,
  
10
Close the pistol to her brow —
 
God forgive them this!

‘Will it hurt much?’ ‘No, mine own:
 
I wish I could bear the pang for both.’ —
‘I wish I could bear the pang alone:
  
15
 
Courage, dear, I am not loth.’

Kiss and kiss: ‘It is not pain
 
Thus to kiss and die.
One kiss more.’— ‘And yet one again.’ —
 
‘Good-bye.’— ‘Good-bye.’
  
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List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order