And harmless lambs milkwhite beside their dams
Frolic along, —
Perfume and song and whiteness offering praise
In humble, peaceful ways.
Man’s high degree hath will and memory,
Affection and desire;
By loftier ways he mounts of prayer and praise,
Fire unto fire,
Deep unto deep responsive, height to height,
Until he walk in white.
A HOPE CAROL
A night was near, a day was near;
Between a day and night
I heard sweet voices calling clear,
Calling me:
I heard a whirr of wing on wing,
But could not see the sight;
I long to see my birds that sing, —
I long to see.
Below the stars, beyond the moon,
Between the night and day,
I heard a rising falling tune
Calling me:
I long to see the pipes and strings
Whereon such minstrels play;
I long to see each face that sings, —
I long to see.
Today or may be not today,
Tonight or not tonight;
All voices that command or pray,
Calling me,
Shall kindle in my soul such fire,
And in my eyes such light,
That I shall see that heart’s desire
I long to see.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
WHOSO HEARS A CHIMING FOR CHRISTMAS AT THE NIGHEST
Whoso hears a chiming for Christmas at the nighest,
Hears a sound like Angels chanting in their glee,
Hears a sound like palm-boughs waving in the highest,
Hears a sound like ripple of a crystal sea.
Sweeter than a prayer-bell for a saint in dying,
Sweeter than a death-bell for a saint at rest,
Music struck in Heaven with earth’s faint replying,
“Life is good, and death is good, for Christ is Best.”
A HOLY, HEAVENLY CHIME
A holy, heavenly chime
Rings fulness in of time,
And on His Mother’s breast
Our Lord God ever-Blest
Is laid a Babe at rest.
Stoop, Spirits unused to stoop,
Swoop, Angels, flying swoop,
Adoring as you gaze,
Uplifting hymns of praise, —
“Grace to the Full of Grace!”
The cave is cold and strait
To hold the angelic state.
More strait it is, more cold,
To foster and infold
Its Maker one hour old.
Thrilled through with awestruck love,
Meek Angels poised above,
To see their God look down.
“What, is there never a Crown
For Him in swaddled gown?
“How comes He soft and weak
With such a tender cheek,
With such a soft, small hand? —
The very Hand which spann’d
Heaven when its girth was plann’d.
“How comes He with a voice
Which is but baby-noise? —
That Voice which spake with might:
‘Let there be light!’ and light
Sprang out before our sight.
“What need hath He of flesh
Made flawless now afresh?
What need of human heart? —
Heart that must bleed and smart,
Choosing the better part.
“But see: His gracious smile
Dismisses us a while
To serve Him in His kin.
Haste we, make haste, begin
To fetch His brethren in.”
Like stars they flash and shoot,
The Shepherds they salute.
“Glory to God” they sing;
“Good news of peace we bring,
For Christ is born a King.”
LO! NEWBORN JESUS
Lo! newborn Jesus,
Soft and weak and small,
Wrapped in baby’s bands
By His Mother’s hands,
Lord God of all.
Lord God of Mary,
Whom His Lips caress
While He rocks to rest
On her milky breast
In helplessness.
Lord God of shepherds
Flocking through the cold,
Flocking through the dark
To the only Ark,
The only Fold.
Lord God of all things,
Be they near or far,
Be they high or low;
Lord of storm and snow,
Angel and star.
Lord God of all men, —
My Lord and my God!
Thou who lovest me,
Keep me close to Thee
By staff and rod.
Lo! newborn Jesus,
Loving great and small,
Love’s free Sacrifice,
Opening Arms and Eyes
To one and all.
A CANDLEMAS DIALOGUE
“Love brought Me down; and cannot love make thee
Carol for joy to Me?
Hear cheerful robin carol from his tree,
Who owes not half to Me
I won for thee.”
“Yea, Lord, I hear his carol’s wordless voice;
And well may he rejoice
Who hath not heard of death’s discordant noise.
So might I too rejoice
With such a voice.”
“True, thou hast compassed death; but hast not thou
The tree of life’s own bough?
Am I not Life and Resurrection now?
My Cross balm-bearing bough
For such as thou?”
“Ah me, Thy Cross! — but that seems far away;
Thy Cradle-song today
I too would raise, and worship Thee and pray:
Not empty, Lord, today
Send me away.”
“If thou wilt not go empty, spend thy store;
And I will give thee more,
Yea, make thee ten times richer than before.
Give more and give yet more
Out of thy store.”
“Because Thou givest me Thyself, I will
Thy blessed word fulfil,
Give with both hands, and hoard by giving still;
Thy pleasure to fulfil,
And work Thy Will.”
MARY MAGDALENE AND THE OTHER MARY
A SONG FOR ALL MARIES
Our Master lies asleep and is at rest;
His Heart has ceased to bleed, His Eye to weep.
The sun ashamed has dropt down in the west;
Our Master lies asleep.
Now we are they who weep, and trembling keep
Vigil, with wrung heart in a sighing breast,
While slow time creeps, and slow the shadows creep.
Renew Thy youth, as eagle from the nest;
O Master, who hast sown, arise to reap:
No cock-crow yet, no flush on eastern crest;
Our Master lies asleep.
PATIENCE OF HOPE
The flowers that bloom in sun and shade
And glitter in the dew,
The flowers must fade.
The birds that build their nest and sing
When lovely spring is new,
Must soon take wing.
The sun that rises in his strength
To wake and warm the world,
Must set at length.
The sea that overflows the shore
With billows frothed and curled,
Must ebb once more.
All come and go, all wax and wane,
O Lord, save only Thou
Who dost remain
The Same to all eternity.
All things which fail us now
We trust to Thee.
> VERSES, 1893
CONTENTS
ALONE LORD GOD, IN WHOM OUR TRUST AND PEACE
SEVEN VIALS HOLD THY WRATH: BUT WHAT CAN HOLD
WHERE NEITHER RUST NOR MOTH DOTH CORRUPT
AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS
LORD, MAKE US ALL LOVE ALL: THAT WHEN WE MEET
O LORD, I AM ASHAMED TO SEEK THY FACE
IT IS NOT DEATH, O CHRIST, TO DIE FOR THEE
LORD, GRANT US EYES TO SEE AND EARS TO HEAR
CRIED OUT WITH TEARS
O LORD, ON WHOM WE GAZE AND DARE NOT GAZE
I WILL COME AND HEAL HIM
AH LORD, LORD, IF MY HEART WERE RIGHT WITH THINE
THE GOLD OF THAT LAND IS GOOD
WEIGH ALL MY FAULTS AND FOLLIES RIGHTEOUSLY
LORD, GRANT ME GRACE TO LOVE THEE IN MY PAIN
LIGHT OF LIGHT
THE RANSOMED OF THE LORD
LORD, WE ARE RIVERS RUNNING TO THY SEA
AN EXCEEDING BITTER CRY
O LORD, WHEN THOU DIDST CALL ME, DIDST THOU KNOW
THOU, GOD, SEEST ME
LORD JESUS, WHO WOULD THINK THAT I AM THINE?
THE NAME OF JESUS
LORD GOD OF HOSTS, MOST HOLY AND MOST HIGH
LORD, WHAT HAVE I THAT I MAY OFFER THEE?
IF I SHOULD SAY “MY HEART IS IN MY HOME
LEAF FROM LEAF CHRIST KNOWS
LORD, CARRY ME. — NAY, BUT I GRANT THEE STRENGTH
LORD, I AM HERE. — BUT, CHILD, I LOOK FOR THEE
NEW CREATURES; THE CREATOR STILL THE SAME
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
THY NAME, O CHRIST, AS INCENSE STREAMING FORTH
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
REJOICE WITH ME
SHALL NOT THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH DO RIGHT?
ME AND MY GIFT: KIND LORD, BEHOLD
HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF
SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
LORD JESU, THOU ART SWEETNESS TO MY SOUL
I, LORD, THY FOOLISH SINNER LOW AND SMALL
BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US
LORD, HAST THOU SO LOVED US, AND WILL NOT WE
AS THE DOVE WHICH FOUND NO REST
THOU ART FAIRER THAN THE CHILDREN OF MEN
AS THE APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE WOOD
NONE OTHER LAMB, NONE OTHER NAME
THY FRIEND AND THY FATHER’S FRIEND FORGET NOT
SURELY HE HATH BORNE OUR GRIEFS
THEY TOIL NOT, NEITHER DO THEY SPIN
DARKNESS AND LIGHT ARE BOTH ALIKE TO THEE
AND NOW WHY TARRIEST THOU?
HAVE I NOT STRIVEN, MY GOD, AND WATCHED AND PRAYED?
GOD IS OUR HOPE AND STRENGTH
DAY AND NIGHT THE ACCUSER MAKES NO PAUSE
O MINE ENEMY
LORD, DOST THOU LOOK ON ME, AND WILL NOT I
PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU
O CHRIST OUR ALL IN EACH, OUR ALL IN ALL!
BECAUSE THY LOVE HATH SOUGHT ME
THY FAINTING SPOUSE, YET STILL THY SPOUSE
LIKE AS THE HART DESIRETH THE WATER BROOKS
THAT WHERE I AM, THERE YE MAY BE ALSO
JUDGE NOT ACCORDING TO THE APPEARANCE
MY GOD, WILT THOU ACCEPT, AND WILL NOT WE
A CHILL BLANK WORLD. YET OVER THE UTMOST SEA
THE CHIEFEST AMONG TEN THOUSAND
ALONE LORD GOD, IN WHOM OUR TRUST AND PEACE
Alone Lord God, in Whom our trust and peace,
Our love and our desire, glow bright with hope;
Lift us above this transitory scope
Of earth, these pleasures that begin and cease,
This moon which wanes, these seasons which decrease:
We turn to Thee; as on an eastern slope
Wheat feels the dawn beneath night’s lingering cope,
Bending and stretching sunward ere it sees.
Alone Lord God, we see not yet we know;
By love we dwell with patience and desire,
And loving so and so desiring pray;
Thy will be done in earth as heaven today;
As yesterday it was, tomorrow so;
Love offering love on love’s self-feeding fire.
SEVEN VIALS HOLD THY WRATH: BUT WHAT CAN HOLD
Seven vials hold Thy wrath: but what can hold
Thy mercy save Thine own Infinitude
Boundlessly overflowing with all good,
All lovingkindness, all delights untold?
Thy Love, of each created love the mould;
Thyself, of all the empty plenitude;
Heard of at Ephrata, found in the Wood,
For ever One, the Same, and Manifold.
Lord, give us grace to tremble with that dove
Which Ark-bound winged its solitary way
And overpast the Deluge in a day,
Whom Noah’s hand pulled in and comforted:
For we who much more hang upon Thy Love
Behold its shadow in the deed he did.
WHERE NEITHER RUST NOR MOTH DOTH CORRUPT
Nerve us with patience, Lord, to toil or rest,
Toiling at rest on our allotted level;
Unsnared, unscared by world or flesh or devil,
Fulfilling the good Will of Thy behest;
Not careful here to hoard, not here to revel;
But waiting for our treasure and our zest
Beyond the fading splendour of the west,
Beyond this deathstruck life and deathlier evil.
Not with the sparrow building here a house:
But with the swallow tabernacling so
As still to poise alert to rise and go
On eager wings with wing-outspeeding wills
Beyond earth’s gourds and past her almond boughs,
Past utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS
Lord, grant us wills to trust Thee with such aim
Of hope and passionate craving of desire,
That we may mount aspiring, and aspire
Still while we mount; rejoicing in Thy Name
Yesterday, this day, day by day the Same:
So sparks fly upward scaling heaven by fire,
Still mount and still attain not, yet draw nigher
While they have being to their fountain flame.
To saints who mount, the bottomless abyss
Is as mere nothing, they have set their face
Onward and upward toward that blessèd place
Where man rejoices with his God, and soul
With soul, in the unutterable kiss
Of peace for every victor at the goal.
LORD, MAKE US ALL LOVE ALL: THAT WHEN WE MEET
Lord, make us all love all: that when we meet
Even myriads of earth’s myriads at Thy Bar,
We may be glad as all true lovers are
Who having parted count reunion sweet.
Safe gathered home around Thy blessèd Feet,
Come home by different roads from near or far,
Whether by whirlwind or by flaming car,
From pangs or sleep, safe folded round Thy seat.
Oh, if our brother’s blood cry out at us,
How shall we meet Thee Who hast loved us all,
Thee Whom we never loved, not loving him?
The unloving cannot chant with Seraphim,
Bear harp of gold or palm victorious,
Or face the Vision Beatifical.
O LORD, I AM ASHAMED TO SEEK THY FACE
O lord, I am ashamed to seek Thy Face
As tho’ I loved Thee as Thy saints love Thee:
Yet turn from those Thy lovers, look on me,
Disgrace me not with uttermost disgrace;
But pour on me ungracious, pour Thy grace
To purge my heart and bid my will go free,
Till I too taste Thy hidden Sweetness, see
Thy hidden Beauty in the holy place.
O Thou Who callest sinners to repent,
Call me Thy sinner unto penitence,
For many sins grant me the greater love:
Set me above the waterfloods, above
Devil and shifting world and fleshly sense,
Thy Mercy’s all-amazing monument.
IT IS NOT DEATH, O CHRIST, TO DIE FOR THEE
It is not death, O Christ, to die for Thee:
Nor is that silence of a silent land
Which speaks Thy praise so all may understand:
Darkness of death makes Thy dear lovers see
Thyself Who Wast and Art and Art to Be;
Thyself, more lovely than the lovely band
Of saints who worship Thee on either hand,
Loving and loved thro’ all eternity.
Death is not death, and therefore do I hope:
Nor silence silence; and I therefore sing
A very humble hopeful quiet psalm,
Searching my heart-field for an offering;
A handful of sun-courting heliotrope,
Of myrrh a bundle, and a little balm.
LORD, GRANT US EYES TO SEE AND EARS TO HEAR
Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear,
And souls to love and minds to understand,
And steadfast faces toward the Holy Land,
And confidence of hope, and filial fear,
And citizenship where Thy saints appear
Before Thee heart in heart and hand in hand,
And Alleluias where their chanting band
As waters and as thunders fill the sphere.
Lord, grant us what Thou wilt, and what Thou wilt
Deny, and fold us in Thy peaceful fold:
Not as the world gives, give to us Thine own:
Inbuild us where Jerusalem is built
With walls of jasper and with streets of gold,
And Thou Thyself, Lord Christ, for Corner Stone.
CRIED OUT WITH TEARS
Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief:
Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Christina Rossetti Page 33