horizon

by Christina Rossetti (1830-94)

Echo

Come to me in the silence of the night;

     Come in the speaking silence of a dream;

Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright

      As sunlight on a stream;

            Come back in tears,

O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,

       Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,

Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;

     Where thirsting longing eyes

        Watch the slow door

That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live

      My very life again tho’ cold in death:

Come back to me in dreams, that I may give

      Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:

           Speak low, lean low,

As long ago, my love, how long ago.