When I Am Dead, My Dearest
by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)
Reads in about 1 minute16 linesNon-religious
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When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
About this text
- Poet
- Christina Rossetti, 1830–1894
- Printing used
- Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), as “Song”
- First published
- 1862
- Public domain
- This printing 1862, before 1931
- Often chosen
- for mom, for grandma, for a woman, non-religious, short