Poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti Part 25

We'd rise and go to bed at eight Or it may be not quite so late.

Then you should see the nest I'd build, The wondrous nest for you and me; The outside rough, perhaps, but filled With wool and down: ah, you should see The cosey nest that it would be.

We'd have our change of hope and fear, Small quarrels, reconcilements sweet: I'd perch by you to chirp and cheer, Or hop about on active feet And fetch you dainty bits to eat.

We'd be so happy by the day, So safe and happy through the night, We both should feel, and I should say, It's all one season of delight, And we'll make merry whilst we may.

Perhaps some day there'd be an egg When spring had blossomed from the snow: I'd stand triumphant on one leg; Like chanticleer I'd almost crow To let our little neighbors know.

Next you should sit and I would sing Through lengthening days of sunny spring: Till, if you wearied of the task, I'd sit; and you should spread your wing From bough to bough; I'd sit and bask.

Fancy the breaking of the sh.e.l.l, The chirp, the chickens wet and bare, The untried proud paternal swell; And you with housewife-matron air Enacting choicer bills of fare.

Fancy the embryo coats of down, The gradual feathers soft and sleek; Till clothed and strong from tail to crown, With virgin warblings in their beak, They too go forth to soar and seek.

So would it last an April through And early summer fresh with dew: Then should we part and live as twain, Love-time would bring me back to you And build our happy nest again.

GONE FOREVER.

O happy rose-bud blooming Upon thy parent tree,-- Nay, thou art too presuming; For soon the earth entombing Thy faded charms shall be, And the chill damp consuming.

O happy skylark springing Up to the broad blue sky, Too fearless in thy winging, Too gladsome in thy singing, Thou also soon shalt lie Where no sweet notes are ringing.

And through life's shine and shower We shall have joy and pain; But in the summer bower, And at the morning hour, We still shall look in vain For the same bird and flower.

UNDER THE ROSE.

"The iniquity of the fathers upon the children."

O the rose of keenest thorn!

One hidden summer morn Under the rose I was born.

I do not guess his name Who wrought my Mother's shame, And gave me life forlorn, But my Mother, Mother, Mother, I know her from all other.

My Mother pale and mild, Fair as ever was seen, She was but scarce sixteen, Little more than a child, When I was born To work her scorn.

With secret bitter throes, In a pa.s.sion of secret woes, She bore me under the rose.

One who my Mother nursed Took me from the first:-- "O nurse, let me look upon This babe that cost so dear; To-morrow she will be gone: Other mothers may keep Their babes awake and asleep, But I must not keep her here."-- Whether I know or guess, I know this not the less.

So I was sent away That none might spy the truth: And my childhood waxed to youth And I left off childish play.

I never cared to play With the village boys and girls; And I think they thought me proud, I found so little to say And kept so from the crowd: But I had the longest curls, And I had the largest eyes, And my teeth were small like pearls; The girls might flout and scout me, But the boys would hang about me In sheepish mooning wise.

Our one-street village stood A long mile from the town, A mile of windy down And bleak one-sided wood, With not a single house.

Our town itself was small, With just the common shops, And throve in its small way.

Our neighboring gentry reared The good old-fashioned crops, And made old-fashioned boasts Of what John Bull would do If Frenchman Frog appeared, And drank old-fashioned toasts, And made old-fashioned bows To my Lady at the Hall.

My Lady at the Hall Is grander than they all: Hers is the oldest name In all the neighborhood; But the race must die with her Though she's a lofty dame, For she's unmarried still.

Poor people say she's good And has an open hand As any in the land, And she's the comforter Of many sick and sad; My nurse once said to me That everything she had Came of my Lady's bounty: "Though she's greatest in the county She's humble to the poor, No beggar seeks her door But finds help presently.

I pray both night and day For her, and you must pray: But she'll never feel distress If needy folk can bless."

I was a little maid When here we came to live From somewhere by the sea.

Men spoke a foreign tongue There where we used to be When I was merry and young, Too young to feel afraid; The fisher-folk would give A kind strange word to me, There by the foreign sea: I don't know where it was, But I remember still Our cottage on a hill, And fields of flowering gra.s.s On that fair foreign sh.o.r.e.

I liked my old home best, But this was pleasant too: So here we made our nest And here I grew.

And now and then my Lady In riding past our door Would nod to nurse and speak, Or stoop and pat my cheek; And I was always ready To hold the field-gate wide For my Lady to go through; My Lady in her veil So seldom put aside, My Lady grave and pale.

I often sat to wonder Who might my parents be, For I knew of something under My simple-seeming state.

Nurse never talked to me Of mother or of father, But watched me early and late With kind suspicious cares: Or not suspicious, rather Anxious, as if she knew Some secret I might gather And smart for unawares.

Thus I grew.

But Nurse waxed old and gray, Bent and weak with years.

There came a certain day That she lay upon her bed Shaking her palsied head, With words she gasped to say Which had to stay unsaid.

Then with a jerking hand Held out so piteously She gave a ring to me Of gold wrought curiously, A ring which she had worn Since the day that I was born, She once had said to me: I slipped it on my finger; Her eyes were keen to linger On my hand that slipped it on; Then she sighed one rattling sigh And stared on with sightless eye:-- The one who loved me was gone.

How long I stayed alone With the corpse I never knew, For I fainted dead as stone: When I came to life once more I was down upon the floor, With neighbors making ado To bring me back to life.

I heard the s.e.xton's wife Say: "Up, my lad, and run To tell it at the Hall; She was my Lady's nurse, And done can't be undone.

I'll watch by this poor lamb.

I guess my Lady's purse Is always open to such: I'd run up on my crutch A cripple as I am,"

(For cramps had vexed her much,) "Rather than this dear heart Lack one to take her part."

For days, day after day, On my weary bed I lay, Wishing the time would pa.s.s; O, so wishing that I was Likely to pa.s.s away: For the one friend whom I knew Was dead, I knew no other, Neither father nor mother; And I, what should I do?

One day the s.e.xton's wife Said: "Rouse yourself, my dear: My Lady has driven down From the Hall into the town, And we think she's coming here.

Cheer up, for life is life."

But I would not look or speak, Would not cheer up at all.

My tears were like to fall, So I turned round to the wall And hid my hollow cheek, Making as if I slept, As silent as a stone, And no one knew I wept.

What was my Lady to me, The grand lady from the Hall?

She might come, or stay away, I was sick at heart that day: The whole world seemed to be Nothing, just nothing to me, For aught that I could see.

Yet I listened where I lay: A bustle came below, A clear voice said: "I know; I will see her first alone, It may be less of a shock If she's so weak to-day":-- A light hand turned the lock, A light step crossed the floor, One sat beside my bed: But never a word she said.

For me, my shyness grew Each moment more and more: So I said never a word And neither looked nor stirred; I think she must have heard My heart go pit-a-pat: Thus I lay, my Lady sat, More than a mortal hour (I counted one and two By the house-clock while I lay): I seemed to have no power To think of a thing to say, Or do what I ought to do, Or rouse myself to a choice.

At last she said: "Margaret, Won't you even look at me?"

A something in her voice Forced my tears to fall at last, Forced sobs from me thick and fast; Something not of the past, Yet stirring memory; A something new, and yet Not new, too sweet to last, Which I never can forget.

I turned and stared at her: Her cheek showed hollow-pale; Her hair like mine was fair, A wonderful fall of hair That screened her like a veil; But her height was statelier, Her eyes had depth more deep: I think they must have had Always a something sad, Unless they were asleep.

While I stared, my Lady took My hand in her spare hand, Jewelled and soft and grand, And looked with a long long look Of hunger in my face; As if she tried to trace Features she ought to know, And half hoped, half feared, to find.

Whatever was in her mind She heaved a sigh at last, And began to talk to me.

"Your nurse was my dear nurse, And her nursling's dear," said she: "No one told me a word Of her getting worse and worse, Till her poor life was past"

(Here my Lady's tears dropped fast): "I might have been with her, I might have promised and heard, But she had no comforter.

She might have told me much Which now I shall never know, Never, never shall know."

She sat by me sobbing so, And seemed so woe-begone, That I laid one hand upon Hers with a timid touch, Scarce thinking what I did, Not knowing what to say: That moment her face was hid In the pillow close by mine, Her arm was flung over me, She hugged me, sobbing so As if her heart would break, And kissed me where I lay.