Conversations introducing poetry :: :: University of Virginia Library

An early Rose borne from her genial bower
Met the fond homage of admiring eyes,
And while young Zephyr fann'd the lovely flower,
Nature and Art contended for the prize.

Exulting Nature cried, I made thee fair,
'Twas I that nursed thy tender buds in dew;
I gave thee fragrance to perfume the air,
And stole from beauty's cheek her blushing hue.

Vainly fastidious novelty affects
O'er alpine heights and untrod wilds to roam,
From rocks and swamps her foreign plants collects,
And brings the rare but scentless treasures home.

160

Midst Art's factitious children let them be
In sickly state by names pedantic known,
True taste's unbiassed eye shall turn to thee,
And love and beauty mark thee for their own.

Cease goddess, cease, indignant Art replied,
And e'er you triumph, know that but for me
This beauteous object of our mutual pride
Had been no other than a vulgar tree.

I snatched her from her tardy mother's arms,
Where sun-beams scorch and piercing tempests blow;
On my warm bosom nursed her infant charms,
Pruned the wild shoot, and trained the straggling bough.

I watched her tender buds, and from her shade
Drew each intruding weed with anxious care,
Nor let the curling blight her leaves invade,
Nor worm nor noxious insect harbour there;

At length the beauty's loveliest bloom appears,
And Art from Fame shall win the promised boon,
While wayward April smiling through her tears
Decks her fair tresses with the wreaths of June.

Then jealous Nature, yield the palm to me,
To me thy pride its early triumph owes;
Though thy rude workmanship produced the tree,
'Twas Education formed the perfect Rose!