 | The Vision of Prophecy and Other Poems |  |
117
THOUGHT ON A ROSE.
Behold the marvellous structure of this Rose!
Full blown, immaculate, and in its firm
Compactness an entire and odorous sphere.
Withal so nicely fashioned that each leaf
Is conscious of its individual being;
Each feels the soft wind breathing at its roots,
The gentle sunshine stealing to its heart,
And tingling in its smallest delicate vein,—
A pulse of gladness. Yet such sympathy
Links leaf to leaf through all the little orb,
That, let but one be rent away, and all
Are instantly dissolved. The steadfast bond
Of unity is broken by the wrong;
The fair and violated building crumbles
Into a heap of leaves, one on another,
Piled loosely like the uncemented stones
Of an old temple.
Full blown, immaculate, and in its firm
Compactness an entire and odorous sphere.
Withal so nicely fashioned that each leaf
Is conscious of its individual being;
Each feels the soft wind breathing at its roots,
The gentle sunshine stealing to its heart,
And tingling in its smallest delicate vein,—
A pulse of gladness. Yet such sympathy
Links leaf to leaf through all the little orb,
That, let but one be rent away, and all
Are instantly dissolved. The steadfast bond
Of unity is broken by the wrong;
The fair and violated building crumbles
Into a heap of leaves, one on another,
Piled loosely like the uncemented stones
Of an old temple.
Thus doth Providence
Image the problem of Society.
Image the problem of Society.
| The Vision of Prophecy and Other Poems | |