At Home by Christina Georgina Rossetti
After death, the speaker's spirit returns to a familiar house and finds friends feasting, laughing, and planning for tomorrow, with no one mentioning yesterday. Feeling forgotten and reluctant to part, the spirit leaves the room.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 330 words
First lines
When I was dead, my spirit turned / To seek the much-frequented house / I passed the door, and saw my friends / Feasting beneath green orange-boughs; / From hand to hand they pushed the wine, / They sucked the pulp of plum and peach; / They sang, they jested, and they laughed, / For each was loved of each.
I listened to their honest chat: / Said one: "To-morrow we shall be / Plod plod along the featureless sands, / And coasting miles and miles of sea. " / Said one: "Before the turn of tide / We will achieve the eyrie-seat. " / Said one: "To-morrow shall be like / To-day, but much more sweet."
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Four rhymed stanzas recount a spirit's return to a familiar house, observation of friends, and departure.
- Lyric Poetry — The first-person speaker expresses the sadness of being forgotten and the reluctance to leave former companions.
Tags
death · friendship · forgetting · remembrance · afterlife
What this Textopian page supports
At Home 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: Narrative Poetry, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 330 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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