All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old, The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart, The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould, Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told; I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart, With the earth and the sky and the water, re-made, like a casket of gold For my dreams of your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
失恋でもしたのでしょうか。悲しみにあふれた詩になっていますね。ここに出てくる「私」とは、タイトルのThe Lover(恋する者)と同一ですが、当初は「Aedh(エイ) Tells Of The Rose In His Heart」(エイ、彼の心の中の薔薇について語る)という題でした。このエイこそ、イェイツの仮の姿(あるいは人格)の一つなんですね。