Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ASHES OF ROSES, by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ASHES OF ROSES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Friend, in whose eyes I looked to-day
Last Line: Shall we complain, such gems who bear?
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Flowers; Love; Roses


FRIEND, in whose eyes I looked to-day,
Whose hand in clinging clasp held mine,
The tender word I could not say
That from my heart went forth to thine.

So lately all thy life was fair,
And bathed in morning's loveliest glow;
So lately came the frosty air
That laid its choicest blossoms low.

Alone by depth of mother-love,
I measure depth of mother-loss,
And feel how thick the clouds above
Thy weary pathway of the cross.

Yet sorrow reigns a queen on earth.
At many a door, a guest unbid,
She lifts the latch; nor less the hearth
She darkens when her form is hid

From stranger eyes, when asphodels
Spring, spear-like, by no new-made grave,
Nor gloom of mourning-garment tells
How keen a blow her sword-thrust gave.

With insight clear I comprehend
Thy stricken life that dreads the sun,
Thy sleepless nights so slow to end,
Thy days that creep in silence on.

Still, whether fade the rose of love
Before a blighting wind of fate,
Or, angel-borne to realms above,
It bloom anew at heaven's gate,—

If once its fragrance blessed our life,
We never wholly lose the past;
Its ashes are with sweetness rife,
And make us richer to the last.

And pain hath gems that purely shine,
"Through suffering perfect," graven where
They catch the light from Love Divine:
Shall we complain, such gems who bear?





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