The Wilful Rose

Prune as you will the briars —
The brambley, wilful dog–rose desires:
Cut to the primal shaft
The whole wild, springing tangle:
Learnedly graft,
And in perfected calyx pose
The perfected petal:
Bid each bud unclose
To order, named,
And in concord with its neighbour rose.

Yet shall mortality
More poet than gardener,
With rhyme of rain on petal
Petal on earth,
Defying pruner's knife
And crabbed gardener's rake
Reawake
The old, incorrigible
Dog–rose desires:
Restore the sweet, free, springing tangle
Of the wild briars.