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(Verses Written under a Picture)
I WHITE rose in red rose-garden | |
| Is not so white; | |
| Snowdrops that plead for pardon | |
| And pine for fright | |
| Because the hard East blows | 5 |
| Over their maiden rows | |
| Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright. | |
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| Behind the veil, forbidden, | |
| Shut up from sight, | |
| Love, is there sorrow hidden, | 10 |
| Is there delight? | |
| Is joy thy dower or grief, | |
| White rose of weary leaf, | |
| Late rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light? | |
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| Soft snows that hard winds harden | 15 |
| Till each flake bite, | |
| Fill all the flowerless garden | |
| Whose flowers took flight | |
| Long since, when summer ceased, | |
| And men rose up from feast, | 20 |
| And warm west wind grew east, and warm day night. | |
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II ‘Come snow, come wind or thunder | |
| High up in air, | |
| I watch my face, and wonder | |
| At my bright hair; | 25 |
| Nought else exalts or grieves | |
| The rose at heart, that heaves | |
| With love of her own leaves and lips that pair. | |
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| ‘She knows not loves that kiss’d her | |
| She knows not where. | 30 |
| Art thou the ghost, my sister, | |
| White sister there, | |
| Am I the ghost, who knows? | |
| My hand, a fallen rose, | |
| Lies snow-white on white snows, and takes no care. | 35 |
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| ‘I cannot see what pleasures | |
| Or what pains were; | |
| What pale new loves and treasures | |
| New years will bear; | |
| What beam will fall, what shower, | 40 |
| What grief or joy for dower; | |
| But one thing knows the flower; the flower is fair.’ | |
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III Glad, but not flush’d with gladness, | |
| Since joys go by; | |
| Sad, but not bent with sadness, | 45 |
| Since sorrows die; | |
| Deep in the gleaming glass | |
| She sees all past things pass, | |
| And all sweet life that was lie down and lie. | |
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| There glowing ghosts of flowers | 50 |
| Draw down, draw nigh; | |
| And wings of swift spent hours | |
| Take flight and fly; | |
| She sees by formless gleams, | |
| She hears across cold streams, | 55 |
| Dead mouths of many dreams that sing and sigh. | |
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| Face fallen and white throat lifted, | |
| With sleepless eye | |
| She sees old loves that drifted, | |
| She knew not why, | 60 |
| Old loves and faded fears | |
| Float down a stream that hears | |
| The flowing of all men’s tears beneath the sky. | |
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