One Certainty by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Citing the Preacher's declaration that all things are vanity, the speaker describes unsatisfied senses and a fleeting human life tossed between hope and fear before ending in death. Days repeat without novelty, and the closing lines anticipate old thorns, cold mornings, and gray twilights until Time ends.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Sonnet, Meditative Poetry · 176 words
First lines
Sonnet.
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher saith, / All things are vanity. The eye and ear / Cannot be filled with what they see and hear. / Like early dew, or like the sudden breath / Of wind, or like the grass that withereth, / Is man, tossed to and fro by hope and fear: / So little joy hath he, so little cheer, / Till all things end in the long dust of death. / To-day is still the same as yesterday, / To-morrow also even as one of them; / And there is nothing new under the sun: / Until the ancient race of Time be run, / The old thorns shall grow out of the old stem, / And morning shall be cold, and twilight gray.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines move from human transience and death to the repetition of days and the eventual end of Time.
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker considers the senses' dissatisfaction, life's brief duration, and the persistence of sorrow through repeated days.
Tags
mortality · vanity · transience · time · hope and fear · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
One Certainty 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, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 176 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for One Certainty by Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph