Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RED AND THE WHITE ROSE, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The red rose bowed one golden summer's night Last Line: The heaven-bound votaress and the earthly queen! Subject(s): Flowers; Roses | ||||||||
THE Red Rose bowed one golden summer's night, The Red Rose bent, low whispering to the White, "Thou pallid shadow of a beauteous flower, Unchanged from purpling dawn to sun-set hour; Whose calm, cold heart beneath all lights that beam, Seems centred always in an Arctic dream; Prim, puritanic, passionless, austere, What would'st thou give my opulent life to share? To every breeze -- the daintiest breeze that blows, Each petalled curve of mine more richly glows; -- And all the countless tints of heaven-born grace But touch to make more bright my Hebe face!" "Ah! well, fulfil thy fate!" the White Rose said; "List to the wooing winds! uplift thy head In sovereign pride through every radiant phase Of star-illumined nights and cloudless days; Let winged lovers thy warm leaves dispart, To find voluptuous shelter next thy heart. Fulfil thy fate, O Queen! but leave to me My stainless calm and cloistral sanctity; Those passionate airs that trembling round thee meet, Sink in soft worship at my veiled feet; The reverent sun-rays shimmering gently down, Weave o'er my brows a halo for a crown; And while I muse in star, or moonshine faint, The flowers seem murmuring, 'Lo! our garden saint!'" The Red Rose heard, but ere she spoke, her mouth Thralled by the light, quick kisses of the South, Passed from arch wonder, blent with gay disdain, Back to its dimpled mirthfulness again; And she, -- the garden's empress -- proud yet fond, -- Of summer flowers, the matchless Rosamond, -- Looked at her pale-hued sister, dew-impearled, As that fair marvel of the island world, Might, in her ruddier nature's Tropic glow, Have viewed a calm St. Agnes' brow of snow, With some dim sense of mystic space between The heaven-bound votaress and the earthly queen! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHISPER OF THE ROSE by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG THE WISDOM OF THE ROSE by ELSA BARKER LOVE PLANTED A ROSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES ROSES; A VILANELLE by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE PAINTER ON SILK by AMY LOWELL VARIATIONS: 17 by CONRAD AIKEN WORDS IN A CERTAIN APPROPRIATE MODE by HAYDEN CARRUTH A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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