Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I bore with thee, long, weary days and nights
Last Line: A harvest--come and reap.
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Subject(s): Jesus Christ


I bore with thee, long, weary days and nights,
Through many pangs of heart, through many tears;
I bore with thee, thy hardness, coldness, slights,
For three and thirty years.

Who else had dared for thee what I have dared?
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above;
I not My flesh, I not My spirit spared:
Give thou Me love for love.

For thee I thirsted in the daily drouth,
For thee I trembled in the nightly frost:
Much sweeter thou than honey to My mouth;
Why wilt thou still be lost?

I bore thee on My shoulders, and rejoiced:
Men only marked upon My shoulders borne
The branding cross; and shouted hungry-voiced,
Or wagged their heads in scorn.

Thee did nails grave upon My hands; thy name
Did thorns for frontlets stamp between Mine eyes.
I, Holy One, put on thy guilt and shame:
I, God, Priest, Sacrifice.

A thief upon My right hand and My left;
Six hours alone, athirst, in misery:
At length, in death, one smote My heart, and cleft
A hiding place for thee.

Nailed to the racking cross, than bed of down
More dear, whereon to stretch Myself and sleep;
So did I win a kingdom--share My crown;
A harvest--come and reap.





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