remember and be sad

My friend is a furious yardsaler, always dredging up treasures. Recently she found me a poetry anthology.

I opened it to a poem by Christina Rossetti, which I post here for anyone who grieves a loss at this time of year--



Or who has an elegiac temperament, like me.

Remember


Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.




Remember when no more, day by day,
You tell me of our future that you plann'd;
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.





Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,













































Better by far you should forget and smile,
Then that you should remember and be sad.



Christina Rossetti