Explore "In the Round Tower at Jhansi" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
June 8, 1857.
A hundred, a thousand to one; even so; / Not a hope in the world remained: / The swarming, howling wretches below / Gained and gained and gained.
Skene looked at his pale young wife: -- / "Is the time come? " -- "The time is come! " -- / Young, strong, and so full of life: / The agony struck them dumb.
Close his arm about her now, / Close her cheek to his, / Close the pistol to her brow -- / God forgive them this!
"Will it hurt much? " -- "No, mine own: / I wish I could bear the pang for both. " / "I wish I could bear the pang alone: / Courage, dear, I am not loth."
Kiss and kiss: "It is not pain / Thus to kiss and die. / One kiss more. " -- "And yet one again. " -- / "Good by. " -- "Good by."
Note. -- I retain this little poem, not as historically accurate, but as written and published before I heard the supposed facts of its first verse contradicted.