The One Hope
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Ireland
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
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?
Ah! when the wan soul in that golden air
Between the scriptured petals softly blown
Peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown, -
Ah! let none othеr alien spell soe'еr
But only the one Hope's one name be there, -
Not less nor more, but even that word alone