Text for A Better Resurrection

poetry by

Christina Rossetti

Solo Soprano................................Male Chorus

I have no wit, no words, no tears;..................O Jesus, rise in me.

My heart within me like a stone...............O Jesus, rise in me.

Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;...........Jesus, Jesus, O Jesus

Look right, look left, I dwell alone;..........Look right, look left, O Jesus, rise in me.

I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief..........My life, my life

No everlasting hills I see;.................My life is like a faded leaf.

My life is in the falling leaf:

My life is like a faded leaf,

O Jesus, O Jesus, rise in me...................dwindled, dwindled, Jesus, Jesus

My harvest dwindled to a husk;

Truly my life is void [and] brief.....................O Jesus, quicken me.

* [And tedious in the barren dusk]

[My life is like a frozen thing,]

No bud nor greenness can I see:..............Yet rise, yet rise;

Yet rise it shall..O Jesus rise in me, rise

One drop of water for my soul..........................A royal cup

the sap of spring................................O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl....................My life, my life, is like a broken bowl;

A broken bowl that cannot hold..............One drop of water for my soul

One drop of water for my soul, my soul

Or cordial in the searching cold;

Cast in the fire the perished thing,.....................O rise, O rise,

Melt and remold it, till it be.......................Melt and remold it

A royal cup for Him my King.......................O rise....rise it shall the sap of spring rise

O rise, O Jesus, rise in me

O Jesus, drink of me.................................O rise,...O Jesus, rise in me.