A wistful poem of longing for love by Christina Rossetti, expressing the feeling or hope that someone to love must exist somewhere in the world if only he or she could be found.
Somewhere or Other
BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Somewhere or other there must surely be
The face not seen, the voice not heard,
The heart that not yet—never yet—ah me!
Made answer to my word.
Somewhere or other, may be near or far;
Past land and sea, clean out of sight;
Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star
That tracks her night by night.
Somewhere or other, may be far or near;
With just a wall, a hedge, between;
With just the last leaves of the dying year
Fallen on a turf grown green.
From <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180855>
There is a pleasing symmetry and progression in this poem. The first stanza focuses on the potential lover and the enigma of their existence or non-existence, ” the face not seen, the voice not heard” etc. In the second stanza the poet wonders where her lover might be found, near or far, but emphasizing the far, while in the third stanza, she explores the same question, but here wondering about the near. Of course, both far and near locations are impossibly inaccessible to the poet as she sits and muses.
So perhaps there is n love at the end of the story, but there is a fine poem.
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