Death-Watches by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Autumn’s burial of spring flowers is accompanied by the winds’ dirge. The setting sun is likewise pictured as buried in the west, followed by a funeral moon and pale stars.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Nature Poetry, Meditative Poetry · 117 words
First lines
The Spring spreads one green lap of flowers / Which Autumn buries at the fall, / No chilling showers of Autumn hours / Can stay them or recall; / Winds sing a dirge, while earth lays out of sight / Her garment of delight.
The cloven East brings forth the sun, / The cloven West doth bury him / What time his gorgeous race is run / And all the world grows dim; / A funeral moon is lit in heaven's hollow, / And pale the star-lights follow.
Genres
- Nature Poetry — Two rhymed stanzas describe spring flowers fading in autumn and the sun setting before moonlight and starlight.
- Meditative Poetry — The repeated images of burial, a dirge, and a funeral connect seasonal change and sunset with death.
Tags
seasonal change · sunset · mortality · flowers · moonlight
What this Textopian page supports
Death-Watches 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: Nature Poetry, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 117 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
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