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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE TWO ANSWERS, by GEORGE P. WHEELER
First Line: I asked a maid with a fair young face
Last Line: "and kills the white flowers there."
Subject(s): Love - Age Differences
First Line: I asked a maid with a fair young face
Last Line: "and kills the white flowers there."
Subject(s): Love - Age Differences
I ASKED a maid with a fair young face
The hue of the flower that men call love;
She smiled and blushed with a sweet, shy grace,
And eyes like the blue above.
"White -- snow-white,
And it blooms at night,
As well in the dark as the day, --
Hid in the shadow or out in the light, --
And best of all, it knows no blight,
And it never fades away!"
I asked a woman out in the street,
Clothed in misery, want, and shame;
Her face was defiant and hard, not sweet, --
Like a rose held in the flame.
"Red -- blood-red
Is the flower," she said,
"And its leaves are sin-color, though fair.
It cannot live and grow in the head,
So it springs up in the heart instead,
And kills the white flowers there."
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