Once for All by Christina Georgina Rossetti

(Margaret.)

I said: This is a beautiful fresh rose. / I said: I will delight me with its scent, / Will watch its lovely curve of languishment, / Will watch its leaves unclose, its heart unclose. / I said: Old Earth has put away her snows, / All living things make merry to their bent, / A flower is come for every flower that went / In autumn; the sun glows, the south wind blows. / So walking in a garden of delight / I came upon one sheltered shadowed nook / Where broad leaf shadows veiled the day with night, / And there lay snow unmelted by the sun: -- / I answered: Take who will the path I took, / Winter nips once for all; love is but one.