Poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti Part 50

He maketh me,-- And me,-- And me,-- To be His blessed little ones around His knee, Who praise Him by mere love confidingly.

Women.

G.o.d makes our service love, and makes our wage Love: so we wend on patient pilgrimage, Extolling Him by love from age to age.

Men.

G.o.d gives us power to rule: He gives us power To rule ourselves, and prune the exuberant flower Of youth, and wors.h.i.+p Him hour after hour.

Spirits and Souls--

Lo, in the hidden world we chant our chant To Him Who fills us that we nothing want, To Him Whose bounty leaves our craving scant.

of Babes--

With milky mouths we praise G.o.d, from the breast Called home betimes to rest the perfect rest, By love and joy fufilling His behest.

of Women--

We praise His Will which made us what He would, His Will which fas.h.i.+oned us and called us good, His Will our plenary beat.i.tude.

of Men.

We praise His Will Who bore with us so long, Who out of weakness wrought us swift and strong, Champions of right and putters-down of wrong.

All.

Let everything that hath or hath not breath, Let days and endless days, let life and death, Praise G.o.d, praise G.o.d, praise G.o.d, His creature saith.

LATER LIFE: A DOUBLE SONNET OF SONNETS.

1.

Before the mountains were brought forth, before Earth and the world were made, then G.o.d was G.o.d: And G.o.d will still be G.o.d, when flames shall roar Round earth and heaven dissolving at His nod: And this G.o.d is our G.o.d, even while His rod Of righteous wrath falls on us smiting sore: And this G.o.d is our G.o.d for evermore Through life, through death, while clod returns to clod.

For though He slay us we will trust in Him; We will flock home to Him by divers ways: Yea, though He slay us we will vaunt His praise, Serving and loving with the Cherubim, Watching and loving with the Seraphim, Our very selves His praise through endless days.

2.

Rend hearts and rend not garments for our sins; Gird sackcloth not on body but on soul; Grovel in dust with faces toward the goal Nor won, nor neared: he only laughs who wins.

Not neared the goal, the race too late begins; Or left undone, we have yet to do the whole; The sun is hurrying west and toward the pole Where darkness waits for earth with all her kins.

Let us to-day, while it is called to-day, Set out, if utmost speed may yet avail-- The shadows lengthen and the light grows pale: For who through darkness and the shadow of death, Darkness that may be felt, shall find a way, Blind-eyed, deaf-eared, and choked with failing breath?

3.

Thou Who didst make and knowest whereof we are made, Oh bear in mind our dust and nothingness, Our wordless tearless dumbness of distress: Bear Thou in mind the burden Thou hast laid Upon us, and our feebleness unstayed Except Thou stay us: for the long long race Which stretches far and far before our face Thou knowest,--remember Thou whereof we are made.

If making makes us Thine, then Thine we are; And if redemption, we are twice Thine own: If once Thou didst come down from heaven afar To seek us and to find us, how not save?

Comfort us, save us, leave us not alone, Thou Who didst die our death and fill our grave.

4.

So tired am I, so weary of to-day, So unrefreshed from foregone weariness, So overburdened by foreseen distress, So lagging and so stumbling on my way, I scarce can rouse myself to watch or pray, To hope, or aim, or toil for more or less,-- Ah, always less and less, even while I press Forward and toil and aim as best I may.

Half-starved of soul and heartsick utterly, Yet lift I up my heart and soul and eyes (Which fail in looking upward) toward the prize: Me, Lord, Thou seest though I see not Thee; Me now, as once the Thief in Paradise, Even me, O Lord my Lord, remember me.

5.

Lord, Thou Thyself art Love and only Thou; Yet I who am not love would fain love Thee; But Thou alone being Love canst furnish me With that same love my heart is craving now.

Allow my plea! for if Thou disallow, No second fountain can I find but Thee; No second hope or help is left to me, No second anything, but only Thou.

O Love accept, according my request; O Love exhaust, fulfilling my desire: Uphold me with the strength that cannot tire, Nerve me to labor till Thou bid me rest, Kindle my fire from Thine unkindled fire, And charm the willing heart from out my breast.

6.

We lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack: Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, certainly.

We see the things we do not yearn to see Around us: and what see we glancing back?

Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack, Hopes that were never ours yet seemed to be, For which we steered on life's salt stormy sea Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack.

If thus to look behind is all in vain, And all in vain to look to left or right, Why face we not our future once again, Launching with hardier hearts across the main, Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight, And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain?

7.

To love and to remember; that is good: To love and to forget; that is not well: To lapse from love to hatred; that is h.e.l.l And death and torment, rightly understood.

Soul dazed by love and sorrow, cheer thy mood; More blest art thou than mortal tongue can tell: Ring not thy funeral but thy marriage bell, And salt with hope thy life's insipid food.

Love is the goal, love is the way we wend, Love is our parallel unending line Whose only perfect Parallel is Christ, Beginning not begun, End without end: For He Who hath the heart of G.o.d sufficed, Can satisfy all hearts,--yea, thine and mine.

8.

We feel and see with different hearts and eyes:-- Ah Christ, if all our hearts could meet in Thee How well it were for them and well for me, Our hearts Thy dear accepted sacrifice.

Thou, only Life of hearts and Light of eyes, Our life, our light, if once we turn to Thee, So be it, O Lord, to them and so to me; Be all alike Thine own dear sacrifice.

Thou Who by death hast ransomed us from death, Thyself G.o.d's sole well-pleasing Sacrifice, Thine only sacred Self I plead with Thee: Make Thou it well for them and well for me That Thou hast given us souls and wills and breath; And hearts to love Thee; and to see Thee, eyes.

9.

Star Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afar Beyond the drawings each of other's strength: One blazes through the brief bright summer's length Lavis.h.i.+ng life-heat from a flaming car; While one unchangeable upon a throne Broods o'er the frozen heart of earth alone, Content to reign the bright particular star Of some who wander or of some who groan.

They own no drawings each of other's strength, Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy, Nor veer along their courses each toward each: Yet are their orbits pitched in harmony Of one dear heaven, across whose depth and length Mayhap they talk together without speech.