Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SHUT OUT, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SHUT OUT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The door was shut. I looked between
Last Line: And dear they are, but not so dear.
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening


THE door was shut. I looked between
Its iron bars; and saw it lie,
My garden, mine, beneath the sky,
Pied with all flowers bedewed and green.

From bough to bough the song-birds crossed,
From flower to flower the moths and bees:
With all its nests and stately trees
It had been mine, and it was lost.

A shadowless spirit kept the gate,
Blank and unchanging like the grave.
I, peering through, said; 'Let me have
Some buds to cheer my outcast state.'

He answered not. 'Or give me, then,
But one small twig from shrub or tree;
And bid my home remember me
Until I come to it again.'

The spirit was silent; but he took
Mortar and stone to build a wall;
He left no loophole great or small
Through which my straining eyes might look.

So now I sit here quite alone,
Blinded with tears; nor grieve for that,
For nought is left worth looking at
Since my delightful land is gone.

A violet bed is budding near,
Wherein a lark has made her nest;
And good they are, but not the best;
And dear they are, but not so dear.





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