We all know of ego and love in times when the one loved is alive, yet their relation may shift in times when the one loved is dead, and for this Christina Rossetti’s poem Remember is instructive.
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 me 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
Than that you should remember and be sad.
(Quoted from page 36 of Poems of Solace and Remembrance, edited by Paul Negri. Dover Publications, 2001.)
For a brief biography of Christina Rossetti, click here. For images of or relating to Christina Rossetti, click here.
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