Most nights I read a poem or two from my anthology of poems by Christina Rossetti, whom I have written about before in these pages. Rossetti's concerns and their expression don't sit all that well with the modern secular reader but they are beautiful and heartfelt nonetheless. The verse below, A Vain Shadow, while it seems to be a stand-alone work, is actually part of a longer series of pieces, 'The Face of the Deep: A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse.' 

A Vain Shadow

The world, - what a world, ah me!

Mouldy, worm-eaten, grey:

Vain as a leaf from a tree,

As a fading day,

As veriest vanity,

As the froth and the spray

Of the hollow-billowed sea,

As what was and shall not be,

As what is and passes away.

The poem references The Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament. I won't get into the deeper meanings of the lines here, but rather draw attention to just how wonderfully crafted they are. There is a world of experience and skill in Rossetti's work. Notice the repetition of 'as' as a line opening, lending a sense of inevitability the world that is but 'a vain shadow' Sometimes I read her poems and marvel at how articulate she is in ways that seem effortless, but which are not.

I suspect I would love to have had a conversation with her, or even been counted as a friend.