Septuagesima One step more, and the race is ended; One word more, and the lesson’s done; One toil more, and a long rest follows At set of sun. Who would fail, for one step withholden? Who would fail, for one word unsaid? Who would fail, for a pause too early? Sound sleep the dead. One step more, and the goal receives us; One word more, and life’s task is done; One toil more, and the Cross is carried And sets the sun. Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894 Rossetti’s poem is based on the traditional Epistle, found in the Book of Common Prayer and the Extraordinary Form, appointed for Septuagesima from 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things: now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away’.
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