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Poet, Cristina (Georgina) Rossetti, born in London, England, UK, the daughter of Gabriele Rossetti. A
devout Anglican, and influenced by the Oxford Movement, she wrote mainly
religious poetry, such as Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862). By the
1880s, recurrent bouts of illness had made her an invalid, but she
continued to write, later works including A Pageant and Other Poems
(1881) and The Face of the Deep (1892). Her work displays the influence
of the Pre-Raphaelite artistic movement, which her brother helped to
found.
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Who hath despised the day of small things? (before 1893)
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As violets so be I recluse and sweet,
Cheerful as daisies unaccounted rare,
Still sunward-gazing from a lowly seat,
Still sweetening wintry air.
While half-awakened Spring lags incomplete,
While lofty forest trees tower bleak and bare,
Daisies and violets own remotest heat
And bloom and make them fair.
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A Dirge (August 26, 1852)
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She was as sweet as violets in the Spring
As fair as any rose in Summertime,
But frail are roses in their prime
And violets in their blossoming.
Even so was she,
And now she lies,
The earth upon her fast-closed eyes,
Dead in the darkness silently.
The sweet Spring violets never bud again,
The roses bloom and perish in a morn;
They see no second quickening lying lorn;
Their beauty dies as though in vain.
Must she die so
For evermore,
Cold as the sand upon the shore,
As passionless for joy and woe?
Her heart shall say "It is enough,
For Thou art with me still,
It is enough, O Lord my God
Thine only blessed Will?"
Then shall the fountain sing
And flow to rest,
Clear as the sun-track
To the purple West.
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Autumn Violets (before 1896)
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Keep love for youth, and violets for the spring,
Of ir these bloom when worn-out autumn grieves
Let them lie hid in double shade of leaves,
Their own, and others' dropped down withering;
For violets suit when home birds build and sing,
Not when the outbound bird a passage cleaves;
Not with dry stubble of mown harvest sheaves,
But when the green world buds to blossoming.
Keep violets for the spring, and love for youth,
Love that should dwell with beauty, mirth, and hope;
Or if a later sadder love be born,
Let this not look for grace beyond its scope,
But give itself, nor plead for answering truth--
A grateful Ruth tho' gleaning scanty corn.
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From Sing Song, a Nursery Rhyme Book(before 1873)
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O wind, where have you been,
That you blow so sweet?
Among the violets
Which blossom at your feet.
The honeysuckle waits
For Summer and for heat
But violets in the chilly Spring
Make the turf so sweet.
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