<meta>

<name>Christina <index>Rossetti</index></name>

</author>

<source>Transcription lifted from <uri>http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/r/rossetti/rest.html</uri>.</source>

<remark>Another elegaic sonnet, this one about an unknown subject — thereby impersonal and personal at once.</remark>

</meta>

<line>O Earth lie heavily upon her <rhyme on="a">eyes</rhyme>;</line>

<line>Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, <rhyme on="b">Earth</rhyme>.</line>

<line>Lie close around her, leave no room for <rhyme on="b">mirth</rhyme></line>

<line>With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of <rhyme on="a">sighs</rhyme>.</line>

</quatrain>

<line>She hath no questions, she hath no <rhyme on="a">replies</rhyme>,</line>

<line>Hushed in and curtained with a blessed <rhyme on="b">dearth</rhyme></line>

<line>Of all that irked her from her hour of <rhyme on="b">birth</rhyme>;</line>

<line>With stillness that is almost <rhyme on="a">Paradise</rhyme>.</line>

</quatrain>

</octave>

<line>Darkness more clear than noon-day holdeth <rhyme on="c">her</rhyme>,</line>

<line>Silence more musical than any <rhyme on="d">song</rhyme>;</line>

<line>Even her very heart hath ceased to <rhyme on="c">stir</rhyme>;</line>

<line>Until the morning of <rhyme on="e">Eternity</rhyme></line>

</quatrain>

<line>Her rest shall not begin nor end, but <rhyme on="e">be</rhyme>,</line>

<line>And when she wakes she will not think it <rhyme on="d">long</rhyme>.</line>

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</sestet>

</sonnet>

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