 | The Finding of The Book and Other Poems |  |
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AN ETERNAL ROSE AND MOTHER
Look, if eternally a fair rose grew,
And if therefrom suns near yet not intense
Won out a purple-flamèd opulence,
Impassioning the paleness through and through
Eternally beneath the unchanging blue;
Then should that rose eternally from thence
Offer its beauty to the eyes and sense.
And if eternally some mother knew
Her gentle babe born under some ill star
Eternal—but eternally most weak—
Then should she ever wail her child of woe!
Such children, surely, are the dearest far.
For ever have her tenderest words to speak,
For ever have her purest tear to flow.
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