Quote of the Day (Christina Rossetti, on the New Year and 'The Rugged Way to Heaven')

“New Year coming on apace

What have you to give me?

Bring you scathe, or bring you grace,

Face me with an honest face;

You shall not deceive me:

Be it good or ill, be it what you will,

It needs shall help me on my road,

My rugged way to heaven, please God.”—English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), “Old and New Year Ditties,” in The Complete Poems, text by R.W. Crump, notes by Betty S. Flowers (2001)

(The image accompanying this post of Christina Rossetti was painted by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in 1877.)