Page:Poems by Christina Rossetti with illustrations by Florence Harrison.djvu/56

 The kind heart made her windy-paced

That urged her home quite out of breath with haste

And inward laughter.

She cried, "Laura," up the garden,

"Did you miss me?

Come and kiss me.

Never mind my bruises,

Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices

Squeezed from goblin fruits for you.

Goblin pulp and goblin dew.

Eat me, drink me, love me;

Laura, make much of me:

For your sake I have braved the glen

And had to do with goblin merchant men."

Laura started from her chair,

Flung her arms up in the air.

Clutched her hair:

"Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted

For my sake the fruit forbidden?

Must your light like mine be hidden,

Your young life like mine be wasted.

Undone in mine undoing,

And ruined in my ruin,

Thirsty, cankered, goblin-ridden?"—

She clung about her sister,

Kissed and kissed and kissed her:

Tears once again

Refreshed her shrunken eyes.

Dropping like rain

After long sultry drouth;