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Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
UP-HILL.
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
The above poem was composed June 29, 1858 and appeared in her 1862 Goblin Market and Other Poems.
It can be found in:
Rossetti, Christina. The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti. Volume I.
R.W. Crump ed. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy, eds. The Norton Anthology of Poetry
(Fourth Edition). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
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