Christina Rossetti

Dec 5, 1830 - Dec 29, 1894

 

Song (When I am dead, my dearest...)

by Christina Rossetti

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 may forget.

Source:

Goblin Market and Other Poems
Copyright 1865
Macmillan And Co.London and Cambridge