Touching "Never" by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Addressing someone who has never loved them, the speaker argues that love remains possible despite advancing age. They imagine reversing their roles and say they would have accepted the same plea for love in the years to come.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Sonnet, Love Poetry · 169 words
First lines
Because you never yet have loved me, dear, / Think you you never can nor ever will? / Surely while life remains hope lingers still, / Hope the last blossom of life's dying year. / Because the season and mine age grow sere, / Shall never Spring bring forth her daffodil, / Shall never sweeter Summer feast her fill / Of roses with the nightingales they hear? / If you had loved me, I not loving you, / If you had urged me with the tender plea / Of what our unknown years to come might do / (Eternal years, if Time should count too few), / I would have owned the point you pressed on me, / Was possible, or probable, or true.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines develop an appeal through an opening octave and a sestet that imagines the lovers' roles reversed.
- Love Poetry — The speaker addresses an unresponsive beloved and argues that the absence of love so far need not rule out future love.
Tags
unrequited love · hope · aging · sonnets
What this Textopian page supports
Touching "Never" 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, Love Poetry
- Length: 169 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Touching "Never" 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