The Wind Among the Reeds/The Travail of Passion

by William Butler Yeats

THE TRAVAIL OF PASSION

When the flaming lute-thronged angelic door is wide;
When an immortal passion breathes in mortal clay;
Our hearts endure the scourge, the plaited thorns, the way
Crowded with bitter faces, the wounds in palm and side,
The hyssop-heavy sponge, the flowers by Kidron stream:
We will bend down and loosen our hair over you,

That it may drop faint perfume, and be heavy with dew,
Lilies of death-pale hope, roses of passionate dream