Poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Dirge

Why were you born when the snow was falling?
You should have come to the cuckoo's calling,
Or when grapes are green in the cluster,
Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster
  For their far off flying
  From summer dying.

Why did you die when the lambs were cropping?
You should have died at the apples' dropping,
When the grasshopper comes to trouble,
And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble,
  And all winds go sighing
  For sweet things dying.

1. Noble Sisters
2. Confluents
3. In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857
4. At Home
5. Love from the North

Thomas Parsons A Dirge ("Slowly tread, and gently bear")

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