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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.
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