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.
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