(Macmillan's Magazine, May 1868.)
A smile because the nights are short!
And every morning brings such pleasure
Of sweet love-making, harmless sport:
Love, that makes and finds its treasure;
Love, treasure without measure.
A sigh because the days are long!
Long long these days that pass in sighing,
A burden saddens every song:
While time lags who should be flying,
We live who would be dying.
The Question and Answer section for Christina Rossetti: Poems is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
The journey is the prominent symbol in this poem, and is open to a few different interpretations. The first interpretation is that the poem symbolizes the journey from birth to death. The darkening sky foreshadows the end of life, and the inn...
Is the poem called Paradise?
We learn the poet is the first to leave the field in the last two lines of the poem.
From the text:
And as I paused to hear his song
While swift the sunny moments slid,
Perhaps his mate sat listening long,
And listened longer than I did.
