Crocuses and snowdrops wither,
Violets, primroses together,
Fading with the fading Spring
Before a fuller blossoming.
O sweet Summer, pass not soon,
Stay awhile the harvest-moon :
O sweetest Summer, do not go,
For Autumn’s next and next the snow.
When Autumn comes the days are drear,
It is the downfall of the year :
We heed the wind and falling leaf
More than the golden harvest-sheaf.
Dreary Winter come at last :
Come quickly, so be quickly past :
Dusk and sluggish Winter, wane
Till Spring and sunlight dawn again.
Christina Georgina Rossetti
7 December 1853