The Secret Splendour

Wild rose with petals of crackling fire,

 Crimson call luring me higher and higher

Only to hurl me on the fanged stone-

Pitiless laughing sword with my bone

As quivering sheath— Thanks for the terrible beauty, the blood-wreath,

The ecstasy's jangle and the smashed star—

 My wondrous war!

Tender rose folded back into bud,

 Scarlet grown deeper with nursing my blood,

 Soul of my body when my eyelids shut,

Body of my soul when my gaze leaps out,

Sound of the Unseen, gleam of the Inaudible,

 Thanks for the marriage in the one God-Will,

 Sweetheart of a love no hands ever seize,

 My marvellous peace!

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