If I might only love my God and die! <br />But now He bids me love Him and live on, <br />Now when the bloom of all my life is gone, <br />The pleasant half of life has quite gone by. <br />My tree of hope is lopped that spread so high, <br />And I forget how summer glowed and shone, <br />While autumn grips me with its fingers wan <br />And frets me with its fitful windy sigh. <br />When autumn passes then must winter numb, <br />And winter may not pass a weary while, <br />But when it passes spring shall flower again; <br />And in that spring who weepeth now shall smile, <br />Yea, they shall wax who now are on the wane, <br />Yea, they shall sing for love when Christ shall come.<br /><br />Christina Georgina Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-only-195/
