I have but images, analogies,

The mystic bread, the sacramental wine,

The red rose where the two shafts of the cross,

Body and soul, waking and sleep, death, life,

Whatever meaning ancient allegorists

Have settled on, are mixed into one joy.

For what’s the rose but that? miraculous cries,

Old stories about mystic marriages,

Impossible truths? But when the torch is lit

All that is impossible is certain,