Classical U

Educating Families Classically....And Having A Good Bit of Fun

Suggest weekly paintings, poems and passages

Please share favorite poems, paintings or short quotations (about a paragraph with the source provided) for everyone to enjoy and to create a pool of material from which we can draw for our “Weekly Painting, Poem or Passage” at the top of our Home page. Ideally, included high resolution images and a little information about authors and sources.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah E DelliGatti on March 1, 2012 at 11:33am

Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon -
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

~ Christina Rosetti (1830-1894)

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Permalink Reply by Sarah E DelliGatti on March 1, 2012 at 11:35am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti

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Permalink Reply by Sarah E DelliGatti on March 1, 2012 at 11:39am

I love how she alludes to multiple Biblical characters and stories throughout, so as you read about each one the full backstory is swimming around in your head. The cross, the women, Peter, the thief, the cosmos, Moses, water from a rock. Amazing! A reminder of how seamless and perfect The Word is!

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hake on March 1, 2012 at 12:34pm

Wonderful! Thank you for sharing. I hope that more people can get to know this poem. Some years back a student recited "Up-Hill" by Christina Rossetti at a CCA poetry festival, and I have read and appreciated several of her poems since then. (I believe that Val has also sung "Up-Hill" before to some music for a class of mine.)

Up-Hill

by Christina Rossetti

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.

Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?

A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.

May not the darkness hide it from my face?

You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?

Those who have gone before.