Goblin Market, the Prince's Progress, and Other Poems

“O where are you going with your love-locks flowingOn the west wind bellowing along this valley track?”“The downhill path is easy, come with me an it please ye,We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.”So they two went together in glowing August weather,The honey-breathing heather lay to their left and right;And dear she was to doat on, her swift feet seemed to float onThe air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight.“Oh, what is that in heaven where grey cloud-flakes are seven,Where blackest clouds hang riven just at the rainy skirt?”“Oh, that’s a meteor sent us, a message dumb, portentous,An undeciphered solemn signal of help or hurt>”“Oh, what is that glides quickly where velvet flowers grow thickly,Their scent comes rich and sickly?” “A scaled and hooded worm.””Oh, what’s that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow?”“Oh, that’s a thin dead body which waits the eternal term.”“Turn again, O my sweetest,--turn again, false and fleetest:This beaten way thou beatest, I fear is hell’s own track.”“Nay, too steep for hill mounting; nay, too late for cost counting:This downhill path is easy, but there’s no turning back.””

— Christina Georgina Rossetti

“To-morrow,' cried they, one and all,  While no one spoke of yesterday. 20Their life stood full at blessed noon;  I, only I, had passed away:'To-morrow and to-day,' they cried; I was of yesterday.””

— Christina Georgina Rossetti

“My tears were swallowed by the sea;  Her songs died on the air.””

— Christina Georgina Rossetti

“We must not look at goblin men,We must not buy their fruits:Who knows upon what soil they fedTheir hungry thirsty roots?””

— Christina Georgina Rossetti