Explore "A Pause of Thought" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I looked for that which is not, nor can be, / And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth / But years must pass before a hope of youth / Is resigned utterly.
I watched and waited with a steadfast will: / And though the object seemed to flee away / That I so longed for, ever day by day / I watched and waited still.
Sometimes I said: This thing shall be no more; / My expectation wearies and shall cease; / I will resign it now and be at peace: / Yet never gave it o'er.
Sometimes I said: It is an empty name / I long for; to a name why should I give / The peace of all the days I have to live? -- / Yet gave it all the same.
Alas, thou foolish one! alike unfit / For healthy joy and salutary pain: / Thou knowest the chase useless, and again / Turnest to follow it.