Christina Rossetti — Dead before Death

Ah! changed and cold, how changed and very cold!         With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes:         Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise; This was the promise of the days of old! Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould,         Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies:         We hoped for better things as years would rise, But it is over as a tale once told. All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore,         All lost the present and the future time, All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before: So lost till death shut-to the opened door,         So lost from chime to everlasting chime, So cold and lost forever evermore.