Kelly at Big A Little A started “Poetry Friday” not long ago, and I thought it might be fun to feature not just a poem but a poet. This week, I’ve chosen the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti, whose Sing-Song collection has enchanted my children for years.

You can read about Rossetti here.

Read her provocative poem “Goblin Market” here.

Read Sing-Song here.

Here’s one of Beanie’s favorites:

Growing in the vale
By the uplands hilly,
Growing straight and frail,
Lady Daffadowndilly.

In a golden crown,
And a scant green gown
While the spring blows chilly,
Lady Daffadown,
Sweet Daffadowndilly.

And, in honor of Good Friday:

Beneath Thy Cross

AM I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon–
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

Tags: Christina Rossetti