"The Poet's Corner..."

Rosa Mundi

Arthur Symons (1865-1945)

An angel of pale desire

Whispered me in the ear

(Ah me, the white-rose mesh

Of the flower-soft, rose-white flesh!)

"Love, they say, is a fire:

Lo, the soft love that is here!

"Love, they say, is a pain

Infinite as the soul,

Ever a longing to be

Love's, to infinity,

Ever a longing in vain

After a vanishing goal.

"Lo, the soft joy that I give

Here in the garden of earth;

Come where the rose-tree grows;

Thine is the garden's rose,

Pluck thou, eat, and live

In ease, in indolent mirth."

Then I saw that the rose was fair,

And the mystical rose afar,

A glimmering shadow of light,

Paled to a star in the night;

And the angel whispered "Beware,

Love is a wandering star.

"Love is a raging fire,

Choose thou content instead;

Thou, the child of dust,

Choose thou a delicate Lust."

"Thou hast chosen!" I said

To the angel of pale desire.