The Rose of Peace

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1892from The Rose16 lines

Earlier titled "The Peace of the Rose"

If Michael, leader of God’s hostWhen Heaven and Hell are met,Looked down on you from Heaven’s door-postHe would his deeds forget.

Brooding no more upon God’s warsIn his Divine homestead,He would go weave out of the starsA chaplet for your head.

And all folk seeing him bow down,And white stars tell your praise,Would come at last to God’s great town,Led on by gentle ways;

And God would bid His warfare cease,Saying all things were well;And softly make a rosy peace,A peace of Heaven with Hell.

Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.

In brief

Summary

A woman's beauty could make the warrior archangel lay down his arms.

The speaker imagines the archangel Michael, leader of God's armies in the war between Heaven and Hell, looking down from Heaven's door and seeing the woman he loves. Michael would forget his battles and weave her a crown of stars. Seeing him bow, everyone would be drawn gently to God, and God himself would end his war, declaring all things well and making "A peace of Heaven with Hell". The whole poem is one long "If": a playful, extravagant compliment in which one woman's beauty could reconcile the universe.

Lines to remember

He would go weave out of the stars

A chaplet for your head.

A peace of Heaven with Hell.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 8Michael disarmed
"If Michael, leader of God's host" looked down on her from "Heaven's door-post", he would forget his deeds of war. Instead of "Brooding" on "God's wars" in his "Divine homestead", he would "weave out of the stars / A chaplet for your head", turning from warrior to lover.
Lines 9 to 16Peace in Heaven
Seeing Michael bow, and the stars praising her, "all folk" would come to God's "great town" by "gentle ways" rather than by force. God would "bid His warfare cease" and make "a rosy peace", the rose recalling the group's title, even "A peace of Heaven with Hell".

Themes

Love and war

The poem sets beauty against conflict at the highest level. Michael, the soldier of Heaven, stops brooding on war and makes a garland instead. The claim is huge but lightly made: the beloved's beauty is strong enough to end the oldest war of all, between Heaven and Hell.

Beauty as grace

Her beauty works like divine grace. It draws people to God "by gentle ways", not by the warfare Michael leads. In the final stanza God himself is softened, and the peace he makes is "rosy", coloured by the Rose that stands for eternal beauty throughout this group of poems.

Context

The poem first appeared in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892) under the title "The Peace of the Rose", and was later retitled. It belongs to the group Yeats called "The Rose", where it sits beside "The Rose of the World" and "The Rose of Battle". In each, the Rose is a symbol of an eternal beauty that is also embodied in a woman.

Form

Four quatrains rhymed ABAB, in alternating lines of four and three beats, like a hymn or ballad. The whole poem is a single conditional sentence running from "If Michael" to "Heaven with Hell", which keeps the fantasy moving and saves its boldest claim for the last line.