I saw a rose on Christmas Day

Bending to bloom over a garden hedge

Lending the winter glooms a softer edge

And a tender spray

Remembering me upon the earth beneath

Of vital strength and power-for-life divine

Defence of germs of springtime from harsh strifes

Presage of leaf and shine

A single rose assayed an exhibition

Offering up height alone as only sign

What day it is, and what we wonder by her;

And to what incline?

Red petals shut tight, in-furled, quite enfolded

Ravelling up close a potency overhanging

With fibres of new life astir, mustering and ganging

Upraising a Standard

An established hope upon glad buoyant hearts;

Their wants reviving, mending to recover

Trust to their selves; cast wonder on that Brother

His broken parts

Whose bud enclosured, folded, yet to show

At Christmastime a far-flung day ago

In a callous earth a space planted also

That we might flower, a coming rose moreover

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