If Only by Christina Georgina Rossetti
The speaker wishes to love God and die, but says God bids continued life despite lost hope and pleasure. Autumn and winter figure this weariness, while a promised spring brings renewed strength, smiles, and songs of love when Christ comes.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Sonnet, Christian Devotional Poetry · 179 words
First lines
If I might only love my God and die! / But now He bids me love Him and live on, / Now when the bloom of all my life is gone, / The pleasant half of life has quite gone by. / My tree of hope is lopped that spread so high, / And I forget how summer glowed and shone, / While autumn grips me with its fingers wan, / And frets me with its fitful windy sigh. / When autumn passes then must winter numb, / And winter may not pass a weary while, / But when it passes spring shall flower again: / And in that spring who weepeth now shall smile, / Yea, they shall wax who now are on the wane, / Yea, they shall sing for love when Christ shall come.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from diminished hope and anticipated weariness to the promise of renewal.
- Christian Devotional Poetry — The speaker submits to God's command to live and anticipates renewed joy when Christ comes.
Tags
faith · weariness · lost hope · mortality · spiritual renewal · Christ · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
If Only 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: Sonnet, Christian Devotional Poetry
- Length: 179 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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