C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
To the Rose upon the Rood of Time
By William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
R
Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways:
Cuchulain battling with the bitter tide;
The Druid, gray, wood-nurtured, quiet-eyed,
Who cast round Fergus dreams and ruin untold;
And thine own sadness, whereof stars, grown old
In dancing silver sandalled on the sea
Sing in their high and lonely melody.
Come near, that no more blinded by man’s fate
I find under the boughs of love and hate
In all poor foolish things that live a day
Eternal beauty wandering on her way.
*****
I would before my time to go
Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways:
Red rose, proud rose, sad rose of all my days.