A Dirge - Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who
wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is famous for writing 
Goblin Market and Remember, and the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.

Why were you born when the snow was falling?
You should have come to the cuckoo's calling,
Or when grapes are green in the cluster,
Or at least when lithe swallows muster
For their far off flying
From summer dying.

Why did you die when the lambs were cropping?
You should have died at the apples' dropping,
When the grasshopper comes to trouble,
And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble,
And all winds go sighing
For sweet things dying.