Rose and Roof-Tree — Poems

Produced by Michelle Shephard, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Upon the enchanted ladder of his rhymes, Round after round and patiently The poet ever upward climbs.
I need give my verse no hint as to whom it sings for. The rose, knowing her own right, makes servitors of the light-rays to carry her color. So every line here shall in some sense breathe of thee, and in its very face bear record of her whom, however unworthily, it seeks to serve and honor.
FIRST GLANCE THE SUNSHINE OF THINE EYES WHEN, LOOKING DEEPLY IN THY FACE WITHIN A YEAR THE SINGING WIRE MOODS OF LOVE: I. In Absence II. Heart's Fountain III. South-Wind Song IV. The Lover's Year V. New Worlds VI. Wedding-Night LOVE'S DEFEAT MAY AND MARRIAGE THE FISHER OF THE CAPE SAILOR'S SONG JESSAMINE GRIEF'S HERO A FACE IN THE STREET THE BATHER HELEN AT THE LOOM O WHOLESOME DEATH BURIAL-SONG FOR SUMNER ARISE, AMERICAN! THE SILENT TIDE
O wayward rose, why dost thou wreathe so high, Wasting thyself in sweet-breath'd ecstasy?
The pulses of the wind my life uplift, And through my sprays I feel the sunlight sift;
And all my fibres, in a quick consent Entwined, aspire to fill their heavenward bent.
I feel the shaking of the far-off sea, And all things growing blend their life with me:
When men and women on me look, there glows Within my veins a life not of the rose.
Then let me grow, until I touch the sky, And let me grow and grow until I die!
So, every year, the sweet rose shooteth higher, And scales the roof upon its wings of fire,