Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AS COLD WATERS TO A THIRSTY SOUL, SO IS GOOD NEWS FROM A FAR COUNTRY, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AS COLD WATERS TO A THIRSTY SOUL, SO IS GOOD NEWS FROM A FAR COUNTRY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Golden-haired, lily-white
Last Line: Yea, thus they joyed who now are overjoyed.
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Subject(s): Jerusalem


'GOLDEN-HAIRED, lily-white,
Will you pluck me lilies?
Or will you show me where they grow,
Show where the limpid rill is?
But is your hair of gold or light,
And is your foot of flake or fire,
And have you wings rolled up from sight
And songs to slake desire?'

'I pluck fresh flowers of Paradise,
Lilies and roses red,
A bending sceptre for my hand,
A crown to crown my head.
I sing my songs, I pluck my flowers
Sweet-scented from their fragrant trees;
I sing, we sing, amid the bowers,
And gather palm-branches.'

'Is there a path to Heaven
My stumbling foot may tread?
And will you show that way to go,
That bower and blossom bed?'
'The path to Heaven is steep and straight
And scorched, but ends in shade of trees,
Where yet a while we sing and wait
And gather palm-branches.'
CAST down but not destroyed, chastened not slain:
Thy Saints have lived that life, but how can I?
I, who thro' dread of death do daily die
By daily foretaste of an unfelt pain.
Lo I depart who shall not come again;
Lo as a shadow I am flitting by;
As a leaf trembling, as a wheel I fly,
While death flies faster and my flight is vain.
Chastened not slain, cast down but not destroyed: --
If thus Thy Saints have struggled home to peace,
Why should not I take heart to be as they?
They too pent passions in a house of clay,
Fear and desire, and pangs and ecstasies;
Yea, thus they joyed who now are overjoyed.





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