"Good Friday" by Christina G. Rossetti : Christ in Poetry

GOOD FRIDAY
by Christina G. Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
   That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
   To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
   Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
   Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
   Which hid their faces in a starless sky.
   A horror of great darkness at broad noon --
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er
   But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
   Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.


Source: Christ in Poetry (1952), an anthology compiled and edited by Thomas Curtis Clark and Hazel Davis Clark

Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894)

English poet