Far-off, most secret, and inviolate Rose

Enfold me in my hour of hours; where those

Who sought thee in the Holy Sepulchre,

Or in the wine-vat, dwell beyond the stir

And tumult of defeated dreams; and deep

Among pale eyelids, heavy with the sleep

Men have named beauty. Thy great leaves enfol

The ancient beards, the helms of ruby and gol

Of the crowned Magi; and the king whose eyes

Saw the Pierced Hands and Rood of Elder rise

In Druid vapour and make the torches dim;

Till vain frenzy awoke and he died; and him

Who met Fand walking among flaming dew

By a grey shore where the wind never blew,

And lost the world and Emer for a kiss;

And him who drove the gods out of their liss,

And till a hundred morns had flowered re

Feasted, and wept the barrows of his dead;

And the proud dreaming king who flung the crow

And sorrow away, and calling bard and clown

Dwelt among wine-stained wanderers in deep woods;

And him who sold tillage, and house, and goods,

And sought through lands and islands numberless years, Until he found with laughter and with tears,

A woman of so shining loveliness

That men threshed corn at midnight by a tress

A little stolen tress. I, too, await

The hour of thy great wind of love and hate

When shall the stars be blown about the sky,

Like the sparks blown out of a smithy, and die?

Surely thine hour has come, thy great wind blows,Far-off, most secret, and inviolate Rose? aUOHKKqGMzEDvwMQ1a9XhTervTMUi77lEfticm3v207bXmiWhCgDp0XMfTffKTq6