Dagens fruntimmer

Dream Land

Where sunless rivers weep 

Their waves into the deep, 

She sleeps a charmed sleep: 

Awake her not. 

Led by a single star, 

She came from very far 

To seek where shadows are 

Her pleasant lot. 

She left the rosy morn, 

She left the fields of corn, 

For twilight cold and lorn 

And water springs. 

Through sleep, as through a veil, 

She sees the sky look pale, 

And hears the nightingale 

That sadly sings. 

Rest, rest, a perfect rest 

Shed over brow and breast; 

Her face is toward the west, 

The purple land. 

She cannot see the grain 

Ripening on hill and plain; 

She cannot feel the rain 

Upon her hand. 

Rest, rest, for evermore 

Upon a mossy shore; 

Rest, rest at the heart's core 

Till time shall cease: 

Sleep that no pain shall wake; 

Night that no morn shall break 

Till joy shall overtake 

Her perfect peace. 

                   Christina Rossetti

Ecce Ancilla Domini! 

Här satt Christina modell för sin bror 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

En av mina favoritpoeter, Christina Rossetti, får bli veckans sista fruntimmer. Hon var ett av fyra talangfulla syskon i familjen Rossetti.

Mycket av det hon skrev handlade om döden och livets jämmerdal — men så hon skrev!

Men hon skrev även verser för barn.

 

Colour

What is pink? a rose is pink 

By a fountain's brink. 

What is red? a poppy's red 

In its barley bed. 

What is blue? the sky is blue 

Where the clouds float thro'. 

What is white? a swan is white 

Sailing in the light. 

What is yellow? pears are yellow, 

Rich and ripe and mellow. 

What is green? the grass is green, 

With small flowers between. 

What is violet? clouds are violet 

In the summer twilight. 

What is orange? Why, an orange, 

Just an orange!

Christina Georgina Rossetti

 5 december 1830-29 december 1894 

målning av Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1877)