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Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti was the most important devotional poet published during the nineteenth century (Gerard Manley Hopkins's poems were not published until 1914). In her own time she was esteemed as the greatest living female

Sexagesima

by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–94)

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5      <firstname>Christina Georgina</firstname>
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9      <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1830</date>
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16

Yet earth was very good in days of old,

And earth is lovely still:

Still for the sacred flock she spreads the fold,

For Sion rears the hill.

Mother she is, and cradle of our race,

A depth where treasures lie,

The broad foundation of a holy place,

Man's step to scale the sky.

She spreads the harvest-field which Angels reap,

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