Saturday Poetry Corner: A Summer Wish

 

 

 

 Live all thy sweet life through,

Sweet Rose, dew-sprent,

Drop down thine evening dew

To gather anew

When day is bright:

I fancy thou wast meant

Chiefly to give delight.

 

Christina Rose
Image courtesy/The Garden Rose Company

 

Sing in the silent sky,

Glad soaring bird;

Sing out thy notes on high

To sunbeam straying by

Or passing cloud;

Heedless if thou art heard

Sing thy full song aloud. 

Of that it were with me

As with the flower;

Blooming on its own tree

For butterfly and bee

Its summer morns:

That I might bloom mine hour

A rose in spite of thorns. 

Oh that my work were done

As birds' that soar

Rejoicing in the sun:

That when my time is run

And daylight too,

I so might rest once more

Cool with refreshing dew. 

 

"A Summer Wish" 
(1862)
Christina Georgina Rossetti
(1830-1894)
English Christian poetess
and writer