Sonnet

Three sang of love together: one with lips

Crimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow,

Flushed to the yellow hair and finger-tips;

And one there sang who soft and smooth as snow

Bloomed like a tinted hyacinth at a show;

And one was blue with famine after love,

Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low

The burden of what those were singing of.

One shamed herself in love; one temperately

Grew gross in soulless love, a sluggish wife;

One famished died for love. Thus two of three

Took death for love and won him after strife;

One droned in sweetness like a fattened bee:

All on the threshold, yet all short of life.

Poetry of Christina Rossetti - Complete Text

Poetry of Christina Rossetti E-Text contains the full text of Poetry of Christina Rossetti

• Table of Contents
• Goblin Market
• In The Round Tower At Jhansi
• Dream Land
• At Home
• A Triad
• Love From The North
• Winter Rain
• Cousin Kate
• Noble Sisters
• Spring
• The Lambs Of Grasmere, 1860
• A Birthday
• Remember
• After Death
• An End
• My Dream
• Song: Oh Roses For the Flush of Youth
• The Hour And The Ghost
• A Summer Wish
• An Apple Gathering
• Song
• Maude Clare
• Echo
• My Secret
• Another Spring
• A Peal Of Bells
• Fata Morgana
• 'No, Thank You, John'
• May
• A Pause Of Thought
• Twilight Calm
• Wife To Husband
• Three Seasons
• Mirage
• Shut Out
• Sound Sleep
• Song ('She sat and sang alway')
• Song ('When I am dead, my dearest')
• Dead Before Death
• Bitter For Sweet
• Sister Maude
• Rest
• The First Spring Day
• The Convent Threshold
• Up-Hill
• Devotional Pieces: 'The Love Of Christ Which Passeth Knowledge'
• Devotional Pieces: 'A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break'
• Devotional Pieces: A Better Resurrection
• Devotional Pieces: Advent
• Devotional Pieces: The Three Enemies
• Devotional Pieces: The One Certainty
• Devotional Pieces: Christian And Jew
• Devotional Pieces: Sweet Death
• Devotional Pieces: Symbols
• Devotional Pieces: 'Consider The Lilies Of The Field'
• Devotional Pieces: The World
• Devotional Pieces: A Testimony
• Devotional Pieces: Sleep At Sea
• Devotional Pieces: From House To Home
• Devotional Pieces: Old And New Year Ditties
• Devotional Pieces: Amen
• The Prince's Progress
• Maiden-Song
• Jessie Cameron
• Spring Quiet
• The Poor Ghost
• A Portrait
• Dream-Love
• Twice
• Songs In A Cornfield
• A Year's Windfalls
• The Queen Of Hearts
• One Day
• A Bird's-Eye View
• Light Love
• A Dream
• A Ring Posy
• Beauty Is Vain
• Lady Maggie
• What Would I Give
• The Bourne
• Summer
• Autumn
• The Ghost's Petition
• Memory
• A Royal Princess
• Shall I Forget?
• Vanity Of Vanities
• L. E. L.
• Life And Death
• Bird Or Beast?
• Eve
• Grown And Flown
• A Farm Walk
• Somewhere Or Other
• A Chill
• A Child's Talk In April
• Gone For Ever
• Under The Rose
• Devotional Pieces: Despised And Rejected
• Devotional Pieces: Long Barren
• Devotional Pieces: If Only
• Devotional Pieces: Dost Thou Not Care?
• Devotional Pieces: Weary In Well-Doing
• Devotional Pieces: Martyrs' Song
• Devotional Pieces: After This The Judgement
• Devotional Pieces: Good Friday
• Devotional Pieces: The Lowest Place
• Death's Chill Between
• Heart's Chill Between
• Repining
• Sit Down In The Lowest Room
• My Friend
• Last Night
• Consider
• Helen Grey
• By The Waters Of Babylon
• Seasons
• Mother Country
• A Smile And A Sigh
• Dead Hope
• Autumn Violets
• 'They Desire A Better Country'
• The Offering Of The New Law, The One Oblation Once Offered
• Conference Between Christ, The Saints, And The Soul
• Come Unto Me
• Jesus, Do I Love Thee?
• I Know You Not
• 'Before The Paling Of The Stars'
• Easter Even
• Paradise: In A Dream
• Within The Veil
• Paradise: In A Symbol
• Amor Mundi
• Who Shall Deliver Me?
• If
• Twilight Night
• Sources