| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXVII. Vain Longing
The One Hope | | By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | | WHEN vain desire at last and vain regret | |
| Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, | |
| What shall assuage the unforgotten pain | |
| And teach the unforgetful to forget? | |
| Shall Peace be still a sunk stream long unmet,— | 5 |
| Or may the soul at once in a green plain | |
| Stoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountain | |
| And cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet? | |
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| Ah! when the wan soul in that golden air | |
| Between the scriptured petals softly blown | 10 |
| Peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown,— | |
| Ah! let none other alien spell soe’er | |
| But only the one Hope’s one name be there,— | |
| Not less nor more, but even that word alone. | | | | |
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