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Poetry · Poem

Remember

Christina Georgina RossettiVictorian BritainPoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

A request to be remembered turns into permission to forget, placing the survivor’s freedom from grief above the speaker’s own memorial claim.

Language notes

Text and edition

The English text follows the fixed historical witness in The Oxford Book of English Verse; no modern third-party translation is included.