Collected Works (Vol. III)

ROSA MUNDI 85 When he built chaos?) Shall Leviathan Be drawn out with an hook 2?) Enough; [see This I can answer—or Ernst Llaeckel can ! Now, God Almighty, rede this mystery ! What of the love that is the heart of man? Take stars and airs, and write it down ! Mill all the interstices of space With myriad verse——own Thy disgrace ! Diminish Thy renown ! Approve my riddle ! This Thou canst not do. 17. O living Kose ! O dowered with subtle dew Of love, the tiny eternitics of time, Caucht between flying seconds, are well filled With these futilides of fragrant rhyme ; In Love’s retort distilled, [In sunrays of fierce loathing purified, In moonrays of pure longing tried, And gathered after many moons of labour Into the compass of a single day, \nd wrought into continuous tune,! One Jaughter with one languor for its neigh- bour, One thought of winiter with one word of June, Muddled and mixed in mere dismay, Chisclled with the cunning chisel of despair, Found wanting, well aware Of its own fault, even insistent Thereon ; some fragrance rare Stolen from my lady’s hair Perchance redeeming now and then the distant Fugitive tunes. 18. Ah! Love! the hour is over! The moon is up, the vigil overpast. Call me to thee at last, () Rose, O perfect miracle lover, Call me! I hear thee though it be across The abyss of the whole universe, Though not a sigh escape. delicious loss ! Vhough hardly a wish rehearse The imperfection underlying ever The perfect happiness. 1 It will be noticed in fact that this poem is in an original metre, no stanza being com- plete in itself, but one running on into the next. Thou knowest that not in flesh Lies the fair fresh Delight of Love; not in mere lips and eyes The secret of these bridal ecstasies, Since thou art everywhere, Rose of the World, Rose of the Uttermost Abode of Glory, Rose of the High Host Of Heaven, mystic, rapturous Rose ! The extreme passion glows Deep in this breast ; thou knowest (and love knows) How every word awakes its own reward In a thought akin to thee, a shadow of thee; And every tune evokes its musical Lord ; And every rhyme tingles and shakes in me The hlaments of the great web of Love. 19. O Rose all roses far above In the garden of God’s roses, Sorrowless, thornless, passionate Rose, that lies Full in the flood of its own sympathies And makes my life one tune that curls and closes On its own self delight ; A circle, never a line! Safe from. all wind, Secure in its own pleasure-house confined, Mistress of all its moods, Matchless, serene, in sacred amplitudes Of its own royal rapture, deaf and blind To aucht but its own mastery of song And light, shown ever as silence and deep night Secret as death and final. Let me long Never again for aught! This great delight Involves me, weaves me in its pattern of bliss, Seals me with its own kiss, Draws me to thee with every dream that glows, Poet, each word ! SNOWS Extending beyond sunset, beyond dawn ! O Rase, inviolate, utterly withdrawn Maiden, each burden ci i In the truth:—for this is truth: Love knows ! Ah! Kose of the World! Rose! Rose!