Aubrey de Vere

Irish poetry in particular has its own ambience. It's half-steeped in shadows and things forgotten, but always draws you in and feels accessible. A great example is from County Limerick, it's Aubrey de Vere's [1814-1902] poem "The Little Black Rose". Read more of Ireland's poetry in W.B. Yeats's tome A Book of Irish Verse here. Here it is:

The Little Black Rose shall be red at last;What made it black but the March wind dry,And the tear of the widow that fell on it fast?It shall redden the hills when June is nigh.

The Silk of the Kine shall rest at last;What drove her forth but the dragon-fly?In the golden vale she shall feed full fast,With her mild gold horn and her slow, dark eye.

The wounded wood-dove lies dead at last!The pine long bleeding, it shall not die!This song is secret. Mine ear it passedIn a wind o'er the plains at Athenry.