Christina Rossetti - Song

Yesterday we featured pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Rossetti. Today, we're looking at a poem from his sister, Christina Rossetti, known for her love poems and often quoted (in episodes of Doctor Who, the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Dark Shadows).

Song

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.