Dead before Death by Christina Georgina Rossetti
The speaker laments coldness, stubbornness, and lifelong lies where there had once been hopes for better things. Fallen blossoms that bore no fruit convey wasted promise, while past, present, and future are declared lost, with loss extending beyond death.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Sonnet, Melancholic Poetry · 176 words
First lines
Sonnet.
Ah! changed and cold, how changed and very cold! / With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes: / Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise; / _This_ was the promise of the days of old! / Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould, / Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies: / We hoped for better things as years would rise, / But it is over as a tale once told. / All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore, / All lost the present and the future time, / All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before: / So lost till death shut-to the opened door, / So lost from chime to everlasting chime, / So cold and lost forever evermore.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines move from disappointed hopes and hardened coldness to a closing declaration of everlasting loss.
- Melancholic Poetry — The repeated declarations of coldness and loss lament unfulfilled promise and wasted time.
Tags
emotional coldness · lost hopes · wasted time · mortality · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
Dead before Death is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Melancholic Poetry
- Length: 176 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Dead before Death by Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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