| Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World! |
| The tall thought-woven sails, that flap unfurled |
| Above the tide
of hours, trouble the air, |
| And God’s bell buoyed to be the water’s care; |
| While hushed from fear, or loud
with hope, a band |
| With blown, spray-dabbled hair gather at hand. |
| Turn if you may from battles never
done, |
| I call, as they go by me one by one, |
| Danger no refuge holds, and war no peace, |
| For him who
hears love sing and never cease, |
| Beside her clean-swept hearth, her quiet shade: |
| But gather all for
whom no love hath made |
| A woven silence, or but came to cast |
| A song into the air, and singing passed |
| To smile on the pale dawn; and gather you |
| Who have sought more than is in rain or dew, |
| Or in the sun
and moon, or on the earth, |
| Or sighs amid the wandering, starry mirth, |
| Or comes in laughter from the
sea’s sad lips, |
| And wage God’s battles in the long grey ships. |
| The sad, the lonely, the insatiable, |
| To
these Old Night shall all her mystery tell; |
| God’s bell has claimed them by the little cry |
| Of their sad hearts,
that may not live nor die. |
|
|
|
|
| Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World! |
| You, too, have come where the
dim tides are hurled |
| Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring |
| The bell that calls us on; the sweet far
thing. |
| Beauty grown sad with its eternity |
| Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea. |
| Our long ships loose
thought-woven sails and wait, |
| For God has bid them share an equal fate; |
| And when at last, defeated in
His wars, |
| They have gone down under the same white stars, |
| We shall no longer hear the little cry |
| Of
our sad hearts, that may not live nor die. |
