Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/A Pause of Thought

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

A PAUSE OF THOUGHT.

I LOOKED for that which is not, nor can be,
 And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth:
 But years must pass before a hope of youth
  Is resigned utterly.

I watched and waited with a steadfast will:
 And though the object seemed to flee away
 That I so longed for, ever day by day
  I watched and waited still.

Sometimes I said: This thing shall be no more;
 My expectation wearies and shall cease;
 I will resign it now and be at peace:
  Yet never gave it o'er.

Sometimes I said: It is an empty name
 I long for; to a name why should I give
 The peace of all the days I have to live?—
  Yet gave it all the same.

Alas, thou foolish one! alike unfit
 For healthy joy and salutary pain:
 Thou knowest the chase useless, and again
  Turnest to follow it.