Christina Rossetti famous quotes

O passing angel, speed me with a song, a melody of heaven to reach my heart and rouse me to the race and make me strong.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Inspirational #Song #Strong

Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Work #Unfinished

Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Love #Love Is #And Love

Silence is more musical than any song.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Song #Silence #Musical

Be the green grass above me, with showers and dewdrops wet; and if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Death #Dying #Green

Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love Divine; Love was born at Christmas; Star and angels gave the sign.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Christmas #Stars #Angel

Choose love not in the shallows but in the deep.
-- Christina Rossetti

Open wide the windows of our spirits and fill us full of light; open wide the door of our hearts, that we may receive and entertain Thee with all our powers of adoration.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Heart #Light #Doors

Flowers preach to us if we will hear.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Flower

Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Happiness #Smile #Sad

What can I give Him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a Wise Man I would do my part. Yet what can I give Him? I give Him my heart.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Christmas #Wise #Heart

She gave up beauty in her tender youth, gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways; she covered up her eyes lest they should gaze on vanity, and chose the bitter truth.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Beauty #Eye #Vanity

I might show facts as plain as day: but, since your eyes are blind, you'd say, 'Where? What?' and turn away.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Eye #Might #Facts

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

#God #Grateful #Heart

Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Clouds #Air #Wind

I wonder if the sap is stirring yet, If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate, If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun And crocus fires are kindling one by one: Sing robin, sing: I still am sore in doubt concerning Spring.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Dream #Spring #Fire

Spring bursts today, For love is risen and all the earth's at play.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Spring #Love Is #Play

Gone were but the Winter, Come were but the Spring, I would go to a covert Where the birds sing; Where in the whitethorn Singeth a thrush, And a robin sings In the holly-bush. Full of fresh scents Are the budding boughs Arching high over A cool green house: Full of sweet scents, And whispering air Which sayeth softly: We spread no snare; Here dwell in safety, Here dwell alone, With a clear stream And a mossy stone. Here the sun shineth Most shadily; Here is heard an echo Of the far sea, Though far off it be.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Sweet #Spring #Winter

I wish I could remember the first day, First hour, first moment of your meeting me; If bright or dim the season it might be; Summer or winter for aught I can say. So, unrecorded did it slip away, So blind was i to see and to forsee, So dull to mark the budding of my tree That would not blossom, yet, for many a May.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Summer #Famous Love #Winter

To me it seems our duty towards the Bible is to obey its teaching in faith. I do not think we are bound to understand or account for all its utterances.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Faith #Teaching #Thinking

Hope is like a hairball trembling from its birth...
-- Christina Rossetti

#Hope #Birth #Trembling

Remember me when I am gone away, gone far away into the silent land.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Land #Gone #Remember

O Lord, I cannot plead my love of Thee: I plead Thy love of me: - the shallow conduit hails the unfathomed sea.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Sea #Lord #Shallow

Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience is the early blossom on the tree of faith.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Tree #Fruit #Obedience

Where innocent bright-eyes daisies are With blades of grass between, Each daisy stands up like a star Out of a sky of green.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Nature #Stars #Eye

Christmas hath a beauty ... lovelier than the world can show.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Christmas #World #Shows

The violets whisper from the shade Which their own leaves have made: Men scent our fragrance on the air, Yet take no heed Of humble lessons we would read.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Humble #Men #Air

The loves that meet in Paradise shall cast out fear, And Paradise hath room for you and me and all.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Paradise #Rooms #Casts

Why does the sea moan evermore? Shut out from heaven it makes its moan, It frets against the boundary shore; All earth's full rivers cannot fill The sea, that drinking thirsteth still.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Ocean #Drinking #Sea

Consider The lilies of the field whose bloom is brief:-- We are as they; Like them we fade away As doth a leaf.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Lilies #Fields #Mortality

Hurt no living thing: Ladybird, nor butterfly, Nor moth with dusty wing.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Hurt #Butterfly #Animal

Come to me in the silence of the night, Come to me 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, love of finished years.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Dream #Memories #Eye

For I am bound with fleshly bands, Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope; I strain my heart, I stretch my hands, And catch at hope.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Hope #Lying #Heart

My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water'd shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit...
-- Christina Rossetti

#Heart #Apples #Water

Why one day in the country Is worth a month in town; Is worth a day and a year Of the dusty, musty, lag-last fashion That days drone elsewhere.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Country #Fashion #Years

Observe this dew-drenched rose of Tyrian gardens A rose today. But you will ask in vain Tomorrow what it is; and yesterday It was the dust, the sunshine, and the rains.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Rain #Flower #Sunshine

What is the beginning? Love. What is the course. Love still. What the goal. The goal is love.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Love #Goal #Stills

Spring is when life's alive in everything.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Spring #Alive

For there is no friend like a sister in 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

#Family #Sister #Cheer

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

#Wall #Doors #Self

My heart is breaking for a little love
-- Christina Rossetti

#Heart #Littles #My Heart

My heart is like a singing bird.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Memorable #Heart #Bird

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

#Wind #Doe #Way

Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Birthday #Love Is #Life Is

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

#Dream #Moon #Light

We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry thirsty roots?
-- Christina Rossetti

#Men #Roots #Looks

When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, Nor shady cypress tree: Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet: And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget. I shall not see the shadows, I shall not feel the rain; I shall not hear the nightingale Sing on as if in pain: And dreaming through the twilight That doth not rise nor set, Haply I may remember, And haply I may forget.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Dream #Song #Pain

Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you planned: Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray. Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterward remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Grieving #Hands #Land

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

#Travel #Nature #Winter

Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Earth #Holy

Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke, I love, as you would have me, God the most; Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost, Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look Unready to forego what I forsook; This say I, having counted up the cost, This, tho' I be the feeblest of God's host, The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook. Yet while I love my God the most, I deem That I can never love you overmuch; I love Him more, so let me love you too; Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such I cannot love you if I love not Him. I cannot love Him if I love not you.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Love You #I Love Him #Love Is

All things that pass Are wisdom's looking-glass.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Glasses

One day in the country Is worth a month in town
-- Christina Rossetti

#Inspirational #Country #Nature

Ah me, but where are now the songs I sang When life was sweet because you call’d them sweet?
-- Christina Rossetti

#Song #Sweet

And all the winds go sighing, for sweet things dying.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Death #Sweet #Wind

She cried, "Laura," up the garden, "Did you miss me? Come and kiss me. Never mind my bruises, Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices Squeezed from goblin fruits for you, Goblin pulp and goblin dew. Eat me, drink me, love me; Laura, make much of me; For your sake I have braved the glen And had to do with goblin merchant men.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Kissing #Men #Garden

Born in a stable, Cradled in a manger, In the world His hands have made, Born a stranger.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Christmas #Hands #World

Oh roses for the flush of youth, And laurel for the perfect prime; But pluck an ivy branch for me Grown old before my time.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Time #Ivy #Perfect

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

#Spring #Ocean #Sea

Hope dead lives nevermore, No, not in heaven.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Hope #Heaven #Nevermore

My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water'd shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these, Because my love is come to me. Raise me a daïs of silk and down; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Carve it in doves and pomegranates, And peacocks with a hundred eyes; Work it in gold and silver grapes, In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Life #Work #Eye

This life is but the passage of a day, This life is but a pang and all is over; But in the life to come which fades not away Every love shall abide and every lover.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Life #Lovers #Passages

Christmas hath a darkness; Brighter than the blazing noon; Christmas hath a chillness Warmer than the heat of June, Christmas hath a beauty Lovelier than the world can show: For Christmas bringeth Jesus, Brought for us so low
-- Christina Rossetti

#Christmas #Jesus #June

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live My very life again though 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
-- Christina Rossetti

#Dream #Long #Giving

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

#Dream #Lying #Heart

Where are the songs I used to know, Where are the notes I used to sing? I have forgotten everything I used to know so long ago. ("The Key-Note")
-- Christina Rossetti

#Song #Keys #Long

The city mouse lives in a house, The garden mouse lives in a bower
-- Christina Rossetti

#Garden #Cities #House

It's surely summer. for there's a swallow: Come one swallow, his mate will follow, The bird race quicken and wheel and thicken.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Summer #Race #Bird

Hope is like a harebell, trembling from its birth,Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth,Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white,Love is like a lovely rose, the world's delight.Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Sweet #Love Is #White

All earth's full rivers can not fillThe sea that drinking thirsteth still.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Drinking #Sea #Rivers

I believe because I am told to believe ... My faith is faith; it is not evolved out of argumentation, nor does it seek the aid of that.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Faith #Believe #Doe

It is not the deed we do Though the deed be never so fair, But the love that the dear Lord looketh for, Hidden with lovely care In the heart of the deed so fair.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Heart #Lovely #Care

Obedience is the fruit of faith.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Dedication #Fruit #Obedience

When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me
-- Christina Rossetti

#Song #Sad Song

Not as she is, but as she fills his dream
-- Christina Rossetti

#Dream

For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Weather #No Friends #Calm

For one man is my world of all the men this wide world holds; O love, my world is you.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Love #Men #World

To her whose heart is my heart's quiet home, To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Mother #Home #Heart

January cold and desolate; February dripping wet; March wind ranges; April changes; Birds sing in tune To flowers of May, And sunny June Brings longest day; In scorched July The storm-clouds fly, Lightning-torn; August bears corn, September fruit; In rough October Earth must disrobe her; Stars fall and shoot In keen November; And night is long And cold is strong In bleak December.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Strong #Stars #Spring

Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Memorable #Love Is #Rose

The downhill path is easy, but there's no turning back....
-- Christina Rossetti

#Path #Easy

Oh 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.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Summer #Running #Flower

The Bourne Underneath the growing grass, Underneath the living flowers, Deeper than the sound of showers: There we shall not count the hours By the shadows as they pass. Youth and health will be but vain, Beauty reckoned of no worth: There a very little girth Can hold round what once the earth Seemed too narrow to contain.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Life #Flower #Shadow

And may you happy live, And long us bless.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Birthday #Long #May

A man is ever apt to contemplate himself out of all proportion to his surroundings.
-- Christina Rossetti

#Men #Self #Surroundings