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Lyric Poem · Nature

A Better Ressurection

by Christina Rossetti

1I have no wit, no words, no tears;

2My heart within me like a stone

3Is numbed too much for hopes or fears.

4Look right, look left, I dwell alone;

5I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief

6No everlasting hills I see;

7My life is in the falling leaf:

8O Jesus, quicken me.

9My life is like a faded leaf,

10My harvest dwindled to a husk:

11Truly my life is void and brief

12And tedious in the barren dusk;

13My life is like a frozen thing,

14No bud nor greenness can I see:

15Yet rise it shall — the sap of spring;

16O Jesus, rise in me.

17My life is like a broken bowl,

18A broken bowl that cannot hold

19One drop of water for my soul

20Or cordial in the searching cold;

21Cast in the fire the perished thing;

22Melt and remould it, till it be

23A royal cup for Him, my King:

24O Jesus, drink of me.

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Quick facts

Poem
A Better Ressurection
Poet
Christina Rossetti
Length
24 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Sad, Autumn

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
24 lines · 3 octaves
Line length
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Christina Rossetti1830–1894
Source record
PoetryDBA Better Ressurection by christina-rossetti, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 9503106944d3ba69
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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