Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ROSE OF WAR by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS

First Line: ITS LEAVES ARE BRIGHT WITH THE CANNON-SHINE
Last Line: FOR THE BREATH OF THE TOMB IS THERE.
Subject(s): FLOWERS; ROSES; WAR;
Its leaves are bright with the cannon-shine,
Its shadow is dark with trembling fears,
Its roots reach down to the deadly mine,
It is watered with widows' tears.

Its blood-red petals are beating lives,
Anguish-dewed where the blossom parts;
Its thorns are the thrusts of angry knives
Death-deep into human hearts.

How fair it gleams in the lying light,
In the flush of the glittering sun how fair!
But tarry not by the gallant sight,
For the breath of the tomb is there.



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