Song by Christina Rossetti

SONG

Christina Rossetti 1830 - 1894

When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;

Plant thou no roses at my head,

Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet;

And if thou wilt, remember,

If thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,

I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale

Sing on, as if in pain:

And dreaming through the twilight

That doth not rise nor set,

Haply I may remember,

And haply may forget.

Note: haply -- perhaps

I learnt a poem by Christina Rossetti when I was in primary school: Who has seen the wind, Neither you nor I, but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by...

(Why is it that we remember what we learnt decades ago but we forget what we had for breakfast just this morning?)