The collection / 34 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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02Undated

"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 all when the 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 labor you shall find the sum." "Will there be beds for me and all who seek?" "Yea,—beds for all who come!"

Christina Rossetti / quote

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03Undated

For there is no friend like a sisterIn calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray,To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands

Christina Rossetti / quote

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04Undated

Ah me, but where are now the songs I sangWhen life was sweet because you call’d them sweet?

Christina Rossetti / quote

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05Undated

What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow.What are brief? today and tomorrow.What are frail? spring blossoms and youth.What are deep? the ocean and truth.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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06Undated

Fair as the moon and joyful as the light;Tot wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim; Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;Not as she is, but as she fills his dreams.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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07Undated

For if the darkness and corruption leaveA vestige of the thoughts that once I had,Better by far you should forget and smileThan that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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08Undated

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, Snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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09Undated

I lock my door upon myself, And bar them out; but who shall wall Self from myself, most loathed of all?

Christina Rossetti / quote

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10Undated

He feeds upon her face by day and night,And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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11Undated

Promise me no promises, So will I not promise you: Keep we both our liberties, Never false and never true: Let us hold the die uncast, Free to come as free to go: For I cannot know your past, And of mine what can you know?

Christina Rossetti / quote

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12Undated

Morning and eveningMaids heard the goblins cry:'Come buy our orchard fruits,Come buy, come buy

Christina Rossetti / quote

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13Undated

Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart; My silent heart, lie still and break: Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed For a dream's sake.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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14Undated

Where there are no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts and no one to thank.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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15Undated

All others are outside myself;I lock my door and bar them outThe turmoil, tedium, gad-about.I lock my door upon myself,And bar them out; but who shall wallSelf from myself, most loathed of all?If I could once lay down myself,And start self-purged upon the raceThat all must run ! Death runs apace.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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16Undated

Then a hundred sad voices lifted a wail,And a hundred glad voices piped on the gale:'Time is short, life is short,' they took up the tale: 'Life is sweet, love is sweet, use to-day while you may;Love is sweet, and to-morrow may fail; Love is sweet, use to-day.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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17Undated

Give me the lowest place: not that I dareAsk for that lowest place, but Thou hast diedThat I might live and shareThy glory by Thy side.Give me the lowest place: of if for meThat lowest place too high, make one more lowWhere I may sit and seeMy God and love Thee so.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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18Undated

Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts, and no one thank.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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19Undated

For I have hedged me with a thorny hedge, I live alone, I look to die alone: Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge, Ghosts of my buried years, and friends come back, My heart goes sighing after swallows flown On sometime summer's unreturning track.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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20Undated

Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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21Undated

A fool I was to sleep at noon, And wake when night is chilly Beneath the comfortless cold moon; A fool to pluck my rose too soon, A fool to snap my lily. My garden-plot I have not kept; Faded and all-forsaken,I weep as I have never wept: Oh it was summer when I slept, It's winter now I waken. Talk what you please of future spring And sun-warm'd sweet to-orrow: Stripp'd bare of hope and everything, No more to laugh, no more to sing, I sit alone with sorrow.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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22Undated

Good folk, I have no coin,To take were to purloin:I have no copper in my purse,I have no silver either,And all my gold is on the furzeThat shakes in windy weatherAbove the rusy heather.

Christina Rossetti / quote

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23Undated

Evening by eveningAmong the Brookside rushes,Laura bow'd her head to hear,Lizzie veil'd her blushes:Crouching close togetherIn the cooling weather,With clasping arms and cautioning lips,With tingling cheeks and fingertips."lie close," Laura said,Pricking up her golden head:"We must not look at Goblin men,We must not buy their fruits:who knows upon the soil they fedTheir hungry thirsty roots?""Come buy," call the GoblinsHobbling down the glen

Christina Rossetti / quote

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24Undated

Who shall tell the lady's griefWhen her Cat was past relief?Who shall number the hot tearsShed o'er her, beloved for years?Who shall say the dark dismayWhich her dying caused that day?

Christina Rossetti / quote

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