Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CHILD AND THE ROSE, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CHILD AND THE ROSE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Said the child to the rose: I would that I
Last Line: Dead, with a baby at her breast.
Subject(s): Children; Flowers; Night; Roses; Winter; Childhood; Bedtime


SAID the child to the rose: "I would that I
Might rest in a pretty garden close,
To feel the wind as it brushes by,
To play with every flower that grows;
It must be sweet in the summer-tide
To watch the buds as they open wide,"
Said the child to the rose.

Said the rose to the child: "And I would be,
Like you, a creature sweet and mild,
Safe-housed from weathers winterly
And warmed with love all undefiled;
'Tis cold for sleep when the night is near,
And the time till morning goes full drear,"
Said the rose to the child.

They had their will: for the rose one day
Was plucked and worn in a ballroom gay,
Where the air was stifling hot, -- and so
It shrunk and died in the fierce, brief glow.

The child, a woman pinched and white,
In after years, on a winter's night,
Lay in the garden, took her rest,
Dead, with a baby at her breast.





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