My Friend by Christina Georgina Rossetti
A speaker contrasts a friend's lively appearance two days earlier with her still body and the mourners' approaching departure. Urging the friends not to weep, the speaker pictures her resting below and waking joyfully above, and calls on them to walk in love as she did.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Elegy, Religious Poetry · 154 words
First lines
Two days ago with dancing glancing hair, / With living lips and eyes: / Now pale, dumb, blind, she lies; / So pale, yet still so fair.
We have not left her yet, not yet alone; / But soon must leave her where / She will not miss our care, / Bone of our bone.
Weep not; O friends, we should not weep: / Our friend of friends lies full of rest; / No sorrow rankles in her breast, / Fallen fast asleep.
She sleeps below, / She wakes and laughs above; / To-day, as she walked, let us walk in love, / To-morrow follow so.
Genres
- Elegy — The four stanzas remember a dead friend's vitality, describe the mourners beside her body, and offer consolation before they leave.
- Religious Poetry — The closing stanza presents bodily rest below alongside joyful waking above and urges the surviving friends to walk in love.
Tags
mourning · friendship · death · afterlife · consolation
What this Textopian page supports
My Friend 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: Elegy, Religious Poetry
- Length: 154 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
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