An End by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Declaring personified Love dead, the speaker calls for his burial among dying flowers. Love was born in spring and departed on the last warm summer day; the speaker urges companions to sing sadly by his grave and remember what once was.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Elegiac Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry · 180 words
First lines
Love, strong as Death, is dead. / Come, let us make his bed / Among the dying flowers: / A green turf at his head; / And a stone at his feet, / Whereon we may sit / In the quiet evening hours.
He was born in the Spring, / And died before the harvesting: / On the last warm summer day / He left us; he would not stay / For autumn twilight, cold and gray. / Sit we by his grave, and sing / He is gone away.
To few chords and sad and low / Sing we so: / Be our eyes fixed on the grass / Shadow-veiled as the years pass, / While we think of all that was / In the long ago.
Genres
- Elegiac Poetry — The death of personified Love prompts a proposed burial, a sad song by his grave, and remembrance of the past.
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed stanzas voice the speaker's mourning through an appeal to companions to sit, sing, and remember.
- Love Poetry — Love is personified as having a brief life from spring to summer, whose ending leaves the speakers mourning.
Tags
lost love · mourning · remembrance · personification · seasonal imagery
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An End is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Elegiac Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry
- Length: 180 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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