University of Virginia Library

LINES ON RECEIVING A ROSE.

Lady, thy blushing gift of growth mature,
A beauteous rose full-blown in lovely bloom,
Was kept by me with soft solicitude,
'Till droop'd its head perfum'd, and leafless died.—
Say, did'st thou cull it fair from prickly stem,
Soft bedew'd with odoriferous sweets,
To pine so soon within a fev'rish grasp?
To leave its beauties, unfann'd by mild gales
That float along their breezy gentleness
With whispering music, o'er Flora's train?
Methought, as languishing I view'd the blush
From thick circling leaves slowly fade away,
'Twas not unlike the healthy cheek of youth
Pale blighted by the with'ry touch of death.—
When rambling through the walks, at early dawn,
Of some cool and flowery garden spot,
Hast thou, lady, amid the clust'ring shrubs,
Close planted round the meandering paths,
Beheld the opening rose from bending stalk
Hang down its tender head, by dew-drops pearl'd?
What lovely mixtures of pure white and red,
Were blended fine, in assemblage complete!
How blooming look'd the little germing buds
Red peeping through the shady pendent leaves!
While pleasing fragrance gave her scented charms.
Alas! no sooner shall to-morrow's wind,
Sweep o'er the earth her loud streperous blast,
Than the stripp'd rose falls crumbling to the ground,—
'Tis thus with gay youth, that sprightly gambols,
With animation's soul, mid smiling scenes;
While lively health her aid benignant lends,
Imparting to the cheek the vivid hue,
To the bright eye an undiminish'd fire.
But soon as grim and haggard sickness comes,
Pouring her poison in the flowing veins,
Quick all the charms of fleeting youth decay,
And like the rose, when cull'd from parent stem,
Has nought but wrecks of beauty's faded form.