E-Text

Christina Rossetti: Poems

A Smile And A Sigh


(Macmillan's Magazine, May 1868.)


A smile because the nights are short!

And every morning brings such pleasure

Of sweet love-making, harmless sport:

Love, that makes and finds its treasure;

Love, treasure without measure.


A sigh because the days are long!

Long long these days that pass in sighing,

A burden saddens every song:

While time lags who should be flying,

We live who would be dying.