To the Rose upon the Rood of Time

O Rose upon the Rood of Time, You the mother of all beauty, And life, which runs like a sable stream! Pale shade of all humanity Who shall see Till life is lost without a dream.

Like thickets of the breath of love, That dream of spring and bloom, Say, — “I would believe again That in time and in this season We can gather round the flame to bloom!”

  • William Butler Yeats