Rose, I have Loved

Rose, I have loved thy beauty, as I love

The dress that thou hast worn, the transient grass,

O’er which thy happy careless footsteps move,

The yet-thrilled waysides that have watched thee pass.

Soul, I have loved thy sweetness as men love

The necessary air they crave to breathe,

The sunlight lavished from the skies above,

And firmness of the earth their steps beneath.

But were that beauty all, my love might cease

Like love of weaker spirits; were’t thy charm

And grace of soul, mine might with age decrease

Or find in Death a silence and a term,

But rooted in the unnameable in thee

Shall triumph and transcend eternity.

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