Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A ROSE by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOW SHORT, SWEET FLOWER, HAVE ALL THY BEAUTIES BEEN
Last Line: SO VIRTUE LIVES, WHEN EVERY GRACE IS FLED.
Subject(s): FLOWERS; ROSES;
HOW short, sweet flower, have all thy beauties been,
An hour they bloomed, and now no more are seen:
So human grandeur fades, so dies away;
Beauty and wealth remain but for a day.
But virtue lives for ever in the mind,
In her alone true happiness we find:
The perfume stays, although the rose be dead;
So virtue lives, when every grace is fled.





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