Song for Pythagoras

By Dannie Abse

White coat and purple coat
     a sleeve from both he sews.
That white is always stained with blood,
     that purple by the rose.

And phantom rose and blood most real
     compose a hybrid style;
white coat and purple coat
    few men can reconcile.

White coat and purple coat
     can each be worn in turn
but in the white a man will freeze
     and in the purple burn.

- Dannie Abse, "Song for Pythagoras" from New and Collected Poems, published by Hutchinson. Source: White Coat Purple Coat: Collected Poems 1948-1988 (Penguin Putnam Inc., 1994)