Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894). Sooner or later: yet at last. Henry Charles Beeching, ed. 1903. Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse

Verse > Anthologies > Henry Charles Beeching, ed. > Lyra Sacra

Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

Sooner or later: yet at last

By Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)


SOONER or later: yet at last
The Jordan must be past;

It may be he will overflow
His banks the day we go;

It may be that his cloven deep	5
Will stand up as an heap.

Sooner or later: yet one day
We all must pass that way;

Each man, each woman, humbled, pale,
Pass veiled within the veil;	10

Child, parent, bride, companion,
Alone, alone, alone.

For none a ransom can be paid,
A suretyship be made:

I, bent by mine own burden, must	15
Enter my house of dust;

I, rated to the full amount,
Must render mine account.

When earth and sea shall empty all
Their graves of great and small;	20

When earth wrapped in a fiery flood
Shall no more hide her blood;

When mysteries shall be revealed;
All secrets be unsealed;

When things of night, when things of shame	25
Shall find at last a name,

Pealed for a hissing and a curse
Throughout the universe:

Then awful Judge, most awful God,
Then cause to bud Thy rod,	30

To bloom with blossoms, and to give
Almonds; yea, bid us live.

I plead Thyself with Thee, I plead
Thee in our utter need:

Jesus, most merciful of men,	35
Show mercy on us then;

Lord God of mercy and of men
Show mercy on us then.