No Bud Nor Greenness Can I See

WhiteAngel2.jpg

I have no wit, no words, no tears;

My heart within me like a stone

Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;

Look right, look left, I dwell alone;

I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief

No everlasting hills I see;

My life is in the falling leaf:

O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,

My harvest dwindled to a husk:

Truly my life is void and brief

And tedious in the barren dusk;

My life is like a frozen thing,

No bud nor greenness can I see:

Yet rise it shall–the sap of Spring;

O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,

A broken bowl that cannot hold

One drop of water for my soul

Or cordial in the searching cold;

Cast in the fire the perish’d thing;

Melt and remould it, till it be

A royal cup for Him, my King:

O Jesus, drink of me.

Image above (and on front-page mastheads): Fresco of the “white angel” at Mileševa monastery, 2012, photograph by Snežana Trifunović. (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)

Words above: “A Better Resurrection” by Christina Rosetti. From Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems. London: Macmillan 1879.

Past Posts
Categories