J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.
By Christina Rossetti (18301894)What would I give!
W
Instead of this heart of stone ice-cold whatever I do;
Hard and cold and small, of all hearts the worst of all.
But now in its misery my spirit has fallen dumb:
Oh, merry friends, go your way, I have never a word to say.
To wash the black mark clean, and to thaw the frost of years,
To wash the stain ingrain, and to make me clean again.