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       Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

    ECHO.

    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 brimfull 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 tho' 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.

 


The above poem appeared in Rossetti's 1862 Goblin Market and Other Poems. It can also be found in:
  • Rossetti, Christina. The Complete Poems of Christina Rossettie, Vol. I. R.W. Crump, ed. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
  • Mulford, Wendy, ed. Love Poems by Women. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1990.