WHY did you say you loved me then, If this must be the end? Can so much more than lover be So much less than friend? You say "Suppose we had not met" Beneath this Provence rose: Suppose we had not loved at all! @3Suppose@1, dear heart, @3suppose?@1 Suppose beside some common road There bloomed a common rose, As this one crimsons all the air Within the garden close. Suppose you plucked it, passing by, And spread its petals wide, Until the sweetness of its heart Filled all the country-side. Suppose you wore it on your breast One careless summer day; Suppose you kissed it once — or twice — To pass the time away, Then tore it slowly leaf by leaf, As I have torn this rose, Until you bared its very soul. @3You would not?@1 Well, @3suppose!@1 Suppose you stripped its very soul Down to life's golden core, Till heart and life and soul were yours, And there was nothing more A rose could give to please your sense Or win a passing smile; Then dropped it in the pathway — thus — No longer worth your while. And then — suppose those scattered leaves Were days we two have shared — You need not say you counted them; You need not say you cared — Could all the counting, all the care, Or all my foolish pain Put that one rose together, dear, Or make it bloom again? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CLEOMENS, OR THE SPARTAN HERO: SONG by JOHN DRYDEN MARECHAL NIEL by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE LUNCH by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH MILLS OF DESTINY by EVA K. ANGLESBURG TO THE NECROPHILE by WALTER CONRAD ARENSBERG SEVEN HONEST MEN by MARTIN BENSON |