Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Dream Land
1Where sunless rivers weep
2Their waves into the deep,
3She sleeps a charmed sleep:
4 Awake her not.
5Led by a single star,
6She came from very far
7To seek where shadows are
8 Her pleasant lot.
9She left the rosy morn,
10She left the fields of corn,
11For twilight cold and lorn
12 And water springs.
13Through sleep, as through a veil,
14She sees the sky look pale,
15And hears the nightingale
16 That sadly sings.
17Rest, rest, a perfect rest
18Shed over brow and breast;
19Her face is toward the west,
20 The purple land.
21She cannot see the grain
22Ripening on hill and plain;
23She cannot feel the rain
24 Upon her hand.
25Rest, rest, for evermore
26Upon a mossy shore;
27Rest, rest at the heart's core
28 Till time shall cease:
29Sleep that no pain shall wake;
30Night that no morn shall break
31Till joy shall overtake
32 Her perfect peace.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Gem, 1 (Jan. 1850). Text from Christina Rossetti, Poems (1890).
First publication date:
1850
RPO poem editor: Margaret Frances (Sister St. Francis) Nims
RP edition: 3RP 3.301.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/14
Composition date:
April
1849
Rhyme: aaabcccb
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