Explore "Later Life: a Double Sonnet of Sonnets" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Rend hearts and rend not garments for our sins; / Gird sackcloth not on body but on soul; / Grovel in dust with faces toward the goal / Nor won, nor neared: he only laughs who wins. / Not neared the goal, the race too late begins; / Or left undone, we have yet to do the whole; / The sun is hurrying west and toward the pole / Where darkness waits for earth with all her kins. / Let us to-day, while it is called to-day, / Set out, if utmost speed may yet avail -- / The shadows lengthen and the light grows pale: / For who through darkness and the shadow of death, / Darkness that may be felt, shall find a way, / Blind-eyed, deaf-eared, and choked with failing breath?