Echo (1854)

Come to me in the silence of the night;
............Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
.............As sunlight on a stream;
.............Come back in tears,
O memory, hope and love of finished years.

O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter-sweet,
.............Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brim-full of love abide and meet;
..............Where thirsting longing eyes
..........................Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.


Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
...............My very life again though cold in death;
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
...............Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
..........................Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.

Christina Rossetti

Goblin Market and Other Poems

1962