Named source · 1862

A Better Resurrection — Christina Rossetti Quotes by Christina Rossetti: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to A Better Resurrection — Christina Rossetti by or associated with Christina Rossetti, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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1862 Christian devotional poem

Topics and ideas

Grief, numbness, seasonal images of falling leaf and frozen life, prayer, resurrection and hoped-for renewal.

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“My life is in the falling leaf: O Jesus, quicken me.”

Christina Rossetti

Meaning & context

The falling leaf becomes an image of decline while the prayer asks for renewed life, joining grief and seasonal imagery to explicitly Christian hope.

Source details

“A Better Resurrection,” in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862 first edition), Devotional Pieces, printed page 137 / scan leaf 153. “My life is in the falling leaf: O Jesus, quicken me” closes the first stanza as a direct Christian prayer for renewed life; the address to Jesus and resurrection frame are essential context and are not secularized into generic recovery advice.

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“I have no wit, no words, no tears; My heart within me like a stone Is numbed too much for hopes or fears.”

Christina Rossetti

Meaning & context

The speaker describes a state of grief so depleted that even ordinary language and tears feel unavailable, before the poem turns explicitly toward Christian prayer.

Source details

“A Better Resurrection,” in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862 first edition), Devotional Pieces, printed page 137 / scan leaf 153. The poem opens “I have no wit, no words, no tears” and develops grief and numbness through Christian devotional imagery before the stanza closes in prayer. This is literary/devotional expression, not a clinical description, diagnosis or treatment recommendation.

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1862 Christian devotional poem

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