Explore "Sweet Death" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The sweetest blossoms die. / And so it was that, going day by day / Unto the church to praise and pray, / And crossing the green churchyard thoughtfully, / I saw how on the graves the flowers / Shed their fresh leaves in showers, / And how their perfume rose up to the sky / Before it passed away.
The youngest blossoms die. / They die and fall and nourish the rich earth / From which they lately had their birth; / Sweet life, but sweeter death that passeth by / And is as though it had not been: -- / All colors turn to green; / The bright hues vanish and the odors fly, / The grass hath lasting worth.
And youth and beauty die. / So be it, O my God, Thou God of truth: / Better than beauty and than youth / Are Saints and Angels, a glad company; / And Thou, O Lord, our Rest and Ease, / Art better far than these. / Why should we shrink from our full harvest? why / Prefer to glean with Ruth?