Wednesdays with Words :: Rossetti in Lent

My children are reading Christina Rossetti's poems this term, and in addition to childhood favorites from Sing-Song, I'm pulling some of her sonnets and other longer poems to read with them.  She has many with religious themes particularly fitting for Lent--I'll be sharing some of those here during Holy Week.  We have also made some wonderful connections between these devotional poems and the religion reading we have been doing this term, focusing on the life of Christ and his apostles.  One such poem we have appreciated both for its Lenten theme and its connection to our studies is the following, published originally in Verses.

"Cried Out With Tears" by Christina Rossetti

Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief:

Lord, I repent, help mine impenitence:

Hide not Thy Face from me, nor spurn me hence,

Nor utterly despite me in my grief;

Nor say me nay, who worship with the thief

Bemoaning my so long lost innocence: --

Ah me! my penitence a fresh offence,

Too tardy and too tepid and too brief.

Lord, must I perish, I who look to Thee?

Look Thou upon me, bid me live, not die;

Say "Come," say not "Depart," tho' Thou art just:

Yea, Lord, be mindful how out of the dust

I look to Thee while Thou dost look on me,

Thou Face to face with me and Eye to eye.