When I am dead, my dearest

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,

and 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.

Christina Georgina Rossetti
1830-1894