The Bridegroom's Song
A poem for Advent and Pentecost...
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Beloved ('The Bride')
I see her coming through the mist
my bride, my longed-for bride
by showers of golden spent leaves kissed
and dreaming of my side
The blood-pooled byways haunt her gait
false echoes drown the true
the vision of her rightful fate
is vanished soon as dew
Her sullied skirts are torn and thorns
her errant steps confound
My Mother’s heart the distance mourns
and sues to salve those wounds
The Crook and Mitre blight her sight
stiff doctrine is her yoke
unbending where love lacks the might
celestial fire to stoke
But I am coming through the mist
to meet her in the green
as nascent spring unfolds her bliss
transports to lands unseen
And now she’s bonded to my heart
My Bride, my Cherished Bride
and she will never more depart
but in my breast abide
