This piece, for SATB a cappella, aims to be a faithful setting of the text. I am used to setting religious texts, with perhaps less word-painting than many composers, as there is an overall mood to be created. I think this transfers to this piece fairly well.
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was a female British poet. She wrote a poem called Requiem or Song
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.