"Up-Hill" by Christina Rossetti

UP-HILL.



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.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
    They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
    Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
    Yea, beds for all who come.

Source of the text - Christina Rossetti: The Complete Poems, Text by R.W. Crump, Notes and Introduction by Betty S. Flowers.  New York: Penguin Books, 2000, page 59.

TJB: Adieu-FAQ; deposition in quatrain verse. Able to stop for death, the questioner seeks travel-info & receives terse, grave monosyllable replies.