Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE ROSE OF THE NIGHT by WILLIAM SHARP

First Line: THE DARK ROSE OF THY MOUTH
Last Line: KISS ME, IMPERISHABLE FIRE, DARK ROSE, O ROSE OF MY DESIRE!
Subject(s): DESIRE; FLOWERS; IMMORTALITY; MORTALITY; MOUTHS; REINCARNATION; ROSES; TRANSMIGRATION; PRETAS;

@3There is an old mystical legend that when a soul among the dead woos a
soul among the living, so that both may be reborn as one, the sign is a dark
rose, or a rose of flame, in the heart of the night.@1

The dark rose of thy mouth
Draw nigher, draw nigher!
Thy breath is the wind of the south,
A wind of fire,
The wind and the rose and darkness, O Rose of my Desire!

Deep silence of the night,
Husht like a breathless lyre,
Save the sea's thunderous might,
Dim, menacing, dire,
Silence and wind and sea, they are thee, O Rose of my Desire!

As a wind-eddying flame
Leaping higher and higher,
Thy soul, thy secret name,
Leaps thro' Death's blazing pyre,
Kiss me, Imperishable Fire, dark Rose, O Rose of my Desire!



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