Death & Dying

Sound Sleep

by Christina Rossetti 1830–1894

From Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)

Death & Dying

Some are laughing, some are weeping;
She is sleeping, only sleeping.
Round her rest wild flowers are creeping;
There the wind is heaping, heaping
Sweetest sweets of Summer's keeping.
By the corn-fields ripe for reaping.

There are lilies, and there blushes
The deep rose, and there the thrushes
Sing till latest sunlight flushes
In the west; a fresh wind brushes
Through the leaves while evening hushes.

There by day the lark is singing
And the grass and weeds are springing;
There by night the bat is winging;
There for ever winds are bringing
Far-off chimes of church-bells ringing.

Night and morning, noon and even,
Their sound fills her dreams with Heaven:
The long strife at lent is striven:
Till her grave-bands shall be riven
Such is the good portion given
To her soul at rest and shriven.

MLA

Rossetti, Christina. “Sound Sleep.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_c/250/.

Chicago

Rossetti, Christina. “Sound Sleep.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_c/250/.

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