Christina Rossetti - If Only lyrics

If I might only love my God and die! But now He bids me love Him and live on, Now when the bloom of all my life is gone, The pleasant half of life has quite gone by. My tree of hope is lopped that spread so high, And I forget how summer glowed and shone, While autumn grips me with its fingers wan, And frets me with its fitful windy sigh. When autumn pa**es then must winter numb, And winter may not pa** a weary while, But when it pa**es spring shall flower again: And in that spring who weepeth now shall smile, Yea, they shall wax who now are on the wane, Yea, they shall sing for love when Christ shall come.