Littell's Living Age/Volume 151/Issue 1952/"The Irresponsive Land"

by Christina Rossetti

The irresponsive silence of the land,
     The irresponsive soundings of the sea,
     Speak both one message of one sense to me: —
Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof: so stand
Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band
     Of inner solitude; we bind, not thee;
     But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?
What heart shall teach thy heart? what hand thy hand? —
And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,
     And sometimes I remember days of old,
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek,
     And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
     And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong, and life itself not weak.