A Better Resurrection: Christina Rossetti

A Better Resurrection by Christina Rossetti


    I have no wit, no words, no tears;
        My heart within me like a stone
    Is numb'd too much for hopes or fears;
        Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
    I lift mine eyes, but dimm'd with grief
        No everlasting hills I see;
    My life is in the falling leaf:
       O Jesus, quicken me.
    My life is like a faded leaf,
       My harvest dwindled to a husk:
   Truly my life is void and brief
       And tedious in the barren dusk;
   My life is like a frozen thing,
       No bud nor greenness can I see:
   Yet rise it shall--the sap of Spring;
       O Jesus, rise in me.

   My life is like a broken bowl,
       A broken bowl that cannot hold
   One drop of water for my soul
       Or cordial in the searching cold;
   Cast in the fire the perish'd thing;
       Melt and remould it, till it be
    A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.


"Sapling" 1973 by
Konstantin Vasiliev *
[1942-1976]