| 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 | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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 past | |
| To smile on the pale dawn; and gather you | 15 |
| 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. | 20 |
| 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! | 25 |
| 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. | 30 |
| 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 | 35 |
| Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die. | |
