Explore "A Portrait" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I.
She gave up beauty in her tender youth, / Gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways; / She covered up her eyes lest they should gaze / On vanity, and chose the bitter truth. / Harsh towards herself, towards others full of ruth, / Servant of servants, little known to praise, / Long prayers and fasts trenched on her nights and days: / She schooled herself to sights and sounds uncouth, / That with the poor and stricken she might make / A home, until the least of all sufficed / Her wants; her own self learned she to forsake, / Counting all earthly gain but hurt and loss. / So with calm will she chose and bore the cross, / And hated all for love of Jesus Christ.