A Better Resurrection

by Christina Rossetti

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.