Dead Hope by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Hope, personified as born one morning and dead by evening, will never live again, even in heaven. The speaker wishes its shroud could dissolve or its burial yield new growth, but declares mourning futile and describes the barren place left in their shared lot.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Elegiac Poetry · 109 words
First lines
Hope new born one pleasant morn / Died at even; / Hope dead lives nevermore, / No, not in heaven.
If his shroud were but a cloud / To weep itself away; / Or were he buried underground / To sprout some day! / But dead and gone is dead and gone / Vainly wept upon.
Nought we place above his face / To mark the spot, / But it shows a barren place / In our lot.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Three short rhymed stanzas express grief over hope's irreversible loss through a personified death and burial.
- Elegiac Poetry — The lament gives lost hope a shroud, a burial and a memorial spot while denying that mourning can revive it.
Tags
lost hope · grief · personification · mourning · irreversible loss
What this Textopian page supports
Dead Hope 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: Lyric Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
- Length: 109 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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