 | The poems of Richard Henry Stoddard |  |
A ROSE SONG.
Why are red roses red?
For roses once were white.
Because the loving nightingales
Sang on their thorns all night,
Sang till the blood they shed
Had dyed the roses red.
For roses once were white.
Because the loving nightingales
Sang on their thorns all night,
Sang till the blood they shed
Had dyed the roses red.
Why are white roses white?
For roses once were red.
Because the sorrowing nightingales
Wept when the night was fled,
Wept till their tears of light
Had washed the roses white.
For roses once were red.
Because the sorrowing nightingales
Wept when the night was fled,
Wept till their tears of light
Had washed the roses white.
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Why are the roses sweet?
For once they had no scent.
Because one day the Queen of Love
Who to Adonis went
Brushed them with heavenly feet—
That made the roses sweet!
For once they had no scent.
Because one day the Queen of Love
Who to Adonis went
Brushed them with heavenly feet—
That made the roses sweet!
| The poems of Richard Henry Stoddard | |