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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Song: ‘When I am dead, my dearest’

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

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.