Remember

by CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894)

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Youngest child of an Italian father, Gabriele, and Italian/English mother, Frances (Polidori), Christina was born on December 5, 1830 in London, England, where she would spend most of her life. continued

Christina Rossetti Contemporaries
Emily Dickinson
William Allingham
Lewis Carroll
Ethel Lynn Beers