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ROSA COELI 
 
I 
ROSE of the World !   
Ruby with blood from the bright veins of God 
Caught in the chalice of your heart, and pearled 
With dew at many a melting period 
When the amethyst lustre of your eyes dissolves 
The veil that hides your naked splendour 
From these infirm resolves 
And halting loves of your poor poet’s soul 
With radiance mild and tender, 
So that I see awhile the golden goal !   
Yea !  all your light involves 
Me, me tenebrous, me too cold and base 
Ever to kindle to the maiden face 
(Three years my wife, three years of me unwon !) 
That would be mine, be mine, 
Were I but man enough 
To endure the rapture of that sudden sun 
The knowledge of your love, 
The assumption of me into that sweet shrine 
Whose godhead duly knows 
Only the one wind of the utmost heaven 
Through hyacinthine deeps 
Down from the sapphirine steeps