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Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of Christina Georgina Rossetti > Text of "A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break"

A poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti

"A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break"

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Title:     "A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break"
Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti [More Titles by Rossetti]

I will accept thy will to do and be,
Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,
Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:
So will I render fruitful, blessing still
The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part.--
Alas, I cannot will.

Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul;
I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,
Though thou but wish indeed to choose My love;
For I have power in earth and heaven above.--
I cannot wish, alas!

What, neither choose nor wish to choose? and yet
I still must strive to win thee and constrain:
For thee I hung upon the cross in pain,
How then can I forget?
If thou as yet dost neither love, nor hate,
Nor choose, nor wish,--resign thyself, be still
Till I infuse love, hatred, longing, will.--
I do not deprecate.


[The end]
Christina Georgina Rossetti's poem: "A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break."

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