Atonement.

You were a red rose then, I know,         Red as her wine--yea, redder still,--     Say rather her blood; and ages ago         (You know how destiny hath its will)     I placed you deep in her gorgeous hair,     And left you to wither there.     Wine and blood and a red, red rose,--         Feast and song and a long, long sleep;--     And which of us dreamed at the drama's close         That the unforgetful years would keep     Our sin and their vengeance laid away     As a gift to this bitter day?     Now you are white as the mountain snow,         White as the hand that I fold you in,     And none but the angels of God may know         That either has once been stained with sin;     It was blood and wine in the old, old years,     But now it is only tears.     And so at the end of our several ways         We have met once more, and the truth is clear     That our heart's own blood no surer pays         For our sin in the past than atonement here;     But the end has come as God knows best:     Now we shall be at rest.