Christina Rossetti

Gone For Ever

Gone For Ever
O happy rose-bud blooming
         Upon thy parent tree,

too presuming

The rosebud is guilty of presumption—assuming it will bloom. Rossetti treats optimism itself as a kind of moral failing.

Nay, thou art too presuming;
For soon the earth entombing
         Thy faded charms shall be,
And the chill damp consuming.

chill damp consuming

Not just death but decomposition. The grave is wet and cold—Rossetti gives you the physical reality of burial.

O happy skylark springing
         Up to the broad blue sky,

Too fearless

The skylark's confidence is a character flaw. Notice the pattern: happiness equals hubris in this poem.

Too fearless in thy winging,
Too gladsome in thy singing,
         Thou also soon shalt lie
Where no sweet notes are ringing.
And through life’s shine and shower
         We shall have joy and pain;
But in the summer bower,
And at the morning hour,
         We still shall look in vain
For the dame bird and flower.

dame bird

Typo or archaic "same"? Either way, the specific bird and flower won't return—not just any replacements.

Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Why This Poem Repeats Itself

The entire poem appears twice—18 lines, then the exact same 18 lines again. This isn't a printing error. Rossetti is showing you what "gone for ever" means by making you experience repetition that goes nowhere.

The first time through, you read about mortality. The second time, you realize the rosebud and skylark from the first version are already gone—you're reading about *different* rosebuds and skylarks who will also die. The cycle repeats, but individuals don't.

CONTEXT This was published in 1862, the same year Rossetti broke off her second engagement (to Charles Cayley) over religious differences. She never married. Many of her poems from this period focus on renunciation and loss as permanent conditions.

The Moral Problem with Happiness

Both the rosebud and skylark are condemned for being "too" happy—"too presuming," "too fearless," "too gladsome." In Victorian devotional poetry, excessive joy in earthly things was spiritually dangerous. You were supposed to hold the world lightly.

Rossetti was deeply religious (High Anglican, almost converted to Catholicism). Her devotional poetry constantly warns against attachment to temporary beauty. The rosebud blooms "upon thy parent tree"—it's connected, rooted, dependent on something mortal.

The final stanza shifts to "we"—now it's about human experience, not just flowers and birds. We get "joy and pain" mixed together ("shine and shower"), but we lose specific beloveds permanently. "The dame bird" (likely "same") emphasizes this: not *a* bird returns in spring, but never *that* bird, *that* flower. Resurrection is general; loss is particular.