Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN EMBLEM, by ALICE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN EMBLEM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: What is my little sweetheart like, d'you say?
Last Line: To drop the curtain.
Subject(s): Roses; Death; Love


WHAT is my little sweetheart like, d' you say?
A simple question, yet a hard, to answer;
But I will tell you in my stammering way
The best I can, sir.

When I was young -- that's neither here nor there --
I read, and reading made my eyelids glisten;
But I'll repeat the story, if you care
To stay and listen.

A wild rose, born within a modest glen,
And sheltered by the leaves of thorny bushes,
Drooped, being commended to the eyes of men,
And died of blushes.

Now, if there were -- and one may well suppose
There never was a flower of such rare splendor,
Much less a rudely nurtured wilding rose,
Withal so tender --

But say there were; what is a rose the less,
When all from east to west the May is blazing,
That any tuneful bard her face should miss,
And give her praising?

Yet say there did, and that her heart did break,
As tells the romance of my early reading,
Then I that fair, fond flower for emblem take --
Sir, are you heeding? --

Aye, say there were, and that she spent her days
In ignorance of her proud poetic glory;
Only her soft death making to the praise
Of her brief story:

Even such a wild, bright flower, and so apart
In her low modest house, my little maid is --
Sweet-hearted, shy, and strange to all the art
Of your fine ladies.

So tender, that to death she needs must grieve,
Stabbed by the glances of bold eyes, is certain;
Take you the emblem, then, and give me leave
To drop the curtain.





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