Tag: Christina Rossetti

On the Wing

9th July 2024
Poetry
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  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find]
  52. The River
  53. Vas Doloris
  54. Squirrel
  55. Ghosts
  56. The Spirit of Poetry
  57. Nightfall in the Tropics
  58. Journey of the Magi
  59. The City Lights Scheduled for 7th January 2025

Photo by kilarov zaneit on Unsplash edited by me

Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you) 
    We stood together in an open field; 
    Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled,  
Sporting at east and courting full in view:—
When loftier still a broadening darkness flew,  
    Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed; 
    Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield; 
So farewell life and love and pleasures new.  
Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground,  
    Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops,  
        I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep: 
    But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow tops  
Bent in a wind which bore to me a sound 
        Of far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.
 

Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian age in England.

To read more poems, click here.

A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey

19th December 2023
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find]
  52. The River
  53. Vas Doloris
  54. Squirrel
  55. Ghosts
  56. The Spirit of Poetry
  57. Nightfall in the Tropics
  58. Journey of the Magi
  59. The City Lights Scheduled for 7th January 2025
Winter holly with berries in the snow

A rose has thorns as well as honey, 
I’ll not have her for love or money; 
An iris grows so straight and fine, 
That she shall be no friend of mine; 
Snowdrops like the snow would chill me; 
Nightshade would caress and kill me; 
Crocus like a spear would fright me; 
Dragon’s-mouth might bark or bite me; 
Convolvulus but blooms to die; 
A wind-flower suggests a sigh; 
Love-lies-bleeding makes me sad; 
And poppy-juice would drive me mad:— 
But give me holly, bold and jolly, 
Honest, prickly, shining holly; 
Pluck me holly leaf and berry 
For the day when I make merry.

Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian age in England.

To read more poems, click here.